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Network integrity via coordinated motion of stratospheric vehicles
M. Ouimet, J. Cortés, S. Martínez
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Osaka, Japan, 2015, pp. 215-220

Abstract

This paper considers the task of deploying mobile wireless repeaters on aerial vehicles in the upper air of Earth to increase the Internet connectivity of users with little to no network infrastructure. By routing data between a user and a strong connection to the Internet through the vehicle network, this ad hoc infrastructure can provide Internet access to those currently without it. We consider two different types of vehicles: altitude-actuating balloons and fixed-altitude gliders. Then, we consider the task of finding optimal trajectories for the vehicles employing a throughput-based performance function and considering lateral wind dynamics. Since the cost of numerically computing the optimal trajectories of all vehicles simultaneously becomes high, we introduce an approximation that allows us to determine the optimal trajectory of one vehicle. Given this optimal reference trajectory, we then develop an algorithm that causes the vehicles to follow that trajectory while being spaced out equally in time, providing good coverage to users. For gliders, we show that, if cost of control is small enough, these vehicles converge to a stationary formation rather than flow with the wind. Simulations validate the good throughput performance of the proposed periodic trajectories.

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Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego
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