TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Control and Tracking for Tethered Airborne Vehicles (LAR-TOPS-40)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.

THE TECHNOLOGY: NASA's Langley Research Center has designed a conceptual hardware and software control system to track the flight of kite-like tethered vehicles. The control system consists of a pan-tilt platform and a visible-spectrum digital camera, combined with tracking control software running on a standard PC. The system controls the flight of the vehicle to keep its position on a Figure-8 trajectory, maximizing velocity (but within limits).

NASA demonstrated the control system and pre-beta software and is seeking development partners to make it more robust and user-friendly by testing in real world systems. The technology of the system controls and tracks the flight of tethered vehicles. Comprised of a camera, load cells, encoders, an anemometer, and software, the tracking system is based on digital photo analysis. The system tracks where the kite is 30 times every second.

The controller makes an adjustment to the tether winch to keep the kite in the controlled trajectory to maximize high velocities without exceeding the limits of the hardware. The design consists of two tethers (each with its own servo motor) and a pan-tilt unit to extend the field of view of the camera. NASA has flown a conceptual scaled system. A video of the demo is available on the website (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCfw1B2XGQc). The system software is considered to be at the pre-beta stage.

To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-40 If you have any questions, please contact Langley Research Center at LARC-DL-technologygateway@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this beta.SAM.gov notice and your preferred contact information.

For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/ These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.