Abstract
Information from the sky is important for rescue activity in large-scale disaster or areas at high risk from natural hazards. Observation systems based on an airplane or a balloon have been studied as information gathering systems from the sky. A balloon-based observation system needs helium gas and relatively long preparation time. An airplane-based observation system can be prepared in short time and its mobility is good. However, a long time flight is difficult because of the limited amount of fuel. This paper proposes a kite-based observation system that complements the activities of the balloon and airplane observation systems by short preparation time and long-term flight. This research aims at construction of the autonomous flight information gathering system using a tethered flying unit that consists of the kite and the ground tether line control unit with a winding machine. This paper reports the development of the kite type tethered flying robot and a fuzzy based autonomous flying control system.
