All,
Early in October my son launched a "space balloon" for his senior project in high school. It was launched in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. Due to a transmitter failure the position was never sent to the ground and the balloon, along with it's payload was never recovered. Based on the last visual we believe it landed somewhere in a ~25-36 square mile region. It's very remote and too much ground to cover on foot without having some idea where it is. Hope seemed all but lost until my son and his team started wondering if they couldn't use an autonomous drone, combined with a 5+MP camera to fly photography missions over the search area then return. Then, using some kind of photo-processing software find possible locations where the parachute and payload may be, based on specific colors that make it stand out against the landscape (red, orange and silver). Armed with that information combined with the GPS coordinates recorded along with the images, make targeted hikes into search area. Lots of unknowns pop up immediately like what altitiude with what camera resolution woudl be required? Can that large an area be flown using way points in such a way to completely cover it?
Sensing this could be as large project as the balloon itself was, to decide feasability, we are seeking any advice, references to similiar efforts, etc that could help us decide if this can be done and if so specifically how (what craft type (fixed | rotor), tech, costs, development, etc.)
My son and his balloon team are all on thier high school's FIRST robotics team which I coach. Thier skills are advanced enough that they can handle programming, electronics assembly, etc.
ANY input, that I can pass on, would be greatly appreciated!
Best Regards,
James Ward
Replies
I live in Reno and would be happy to assist your group build something. It definitely wouldn't be economically worthwhile, but it's the challenge that makes it interesting.
I am going to be hosting a monthly UAV interest group meeting at the new local hackerspace.
With all of the mountains around the Black Rock area, you might be better off just conducting a systematic visual scan with optics from the nearest peak at dawn?
James,
I can't imagine the balloon actually being worth much compared to even a minimal effort that you might expend looking for it. The flying and getting the photographs is almost trivial albeit time consuming and one would have to weight the risk of losing a UAV compared to the actual benefit of finding the balloon.
Mike
Whilst its sort of possible the time and cost of resetting all the runs and reviewing the images probably means hiring a cessna and looking would be easier. You could also have more sensors on board the cessna (eyes)
You need quite a platform to be able to fly 35 square miles. You can't fly out side of VLOS either legally so that would be an issue as well.
That sort of area might be the tipping point where manned in this case would be easier.
Good luck.