Loitering and Trajectory Tracking of Suspended Payloads in Cable-Driven Balloons Using UGVs

Investigations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for planetary exploration and payload manipulation have become a strong focus of research within space robotics. Among possible solutions, balloon-based systems possess merits that make them extremely attractive, such as their simple operation mechanism and endured operation time. However, there are many hurdles to overcome to achieve robust trajectory tracking performance for balloon-based applications. In this work, in order to facilitate the control and versatile use of balloons for near-surface planetary payload manipulation, a novel robotic platform and control strategy featuring the coordinated servoing of multiple unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to actuate a cable-driven balloon and the suspended payload is proposed. An earthbound prototype and dynamic model of this system are designed to allow for the investigation of payload trajectory tracking performance using a tailored Model Predictive Controller in simulation and experiment.