Stabilization and control of a camera for earth observation in near-space environment

• Main Author: Tan, Kia Wei
• Other Authors: Low Kay Soon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61247
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In recent years, novel applications using high altitude (i.e. above 20km) balloon has attracted a lot of interests. For example, Google and Facebook have investigated a lot of resources to study its potential use for internet and communication applications. In this project, its potential use for Earth Observation in near-space region is explored. For this type of mission, the quality of captured image is most important. Besides using a high quality camera onboard the high altitude balloon, the image quality cannot be guarantee as the balloon might be rotating or shaky during the flight. Hence, a stabilization technique is required to be used for the camera. Since the high altitude balloon is being launched into the near-space region, the control of the image capturing can only be done remotely using long range wireless communication. In this project, the selection of the camera, the control approach and the stabilization technique will be investigated. The simulation study based on the presented techniques will be discussed as well as the simulation of ground station communicating with the high altitude balloon.