Telecommunication and broadcasting systems using radio-relay/base stations on board the high altitude platforms are expected to create the largest business market among its possible applications. Telecommunications Advanced Organization (TAO) and Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) is conducting R&D on the telecom and broadcasting system to demonstrate its feasibility. Prototype onboard eq...

In the presence of unknown disturbances and model parameter uncertainties, this paper develop a nonlinear backstepping sliding-mode controller (BSMC) for trajectory tracking control stratospheric airship using disturbance-observer (DO). Compared with conventional sliding mode surface (SMS) constructed by linear combination errors, new SMS manifold is selected as last back-step error to improve ...

On 5 May 1902, Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo applied for a Patent in France for “Improvements in dirigible aerostats”, complemented, with a “Note on the calculus of a dirigible balloon with interior suspension and keel” presented together to Madrid and Paris’ Academies of Science. He had conceived a complex inner structure, all along the envelope of the aerostat: a longitudinal frame...