A Miniature Robotic Plane Meteorological Sounding System

This article presents a miniature robotic plane meteorological sounding system RPMSS), which consists of three major subsystems: a miniature robotic plane, an air-borne meteorological sounding and flight control system, and a ground-based system. Take-off and landing of the miniature aircraft are guided by radio control, and the flight of the robotic plane along a pre-designed trajectory is automatically piloted by an onboard navigation system. The observed meteorological data as well as all flight information are sent back in real time to the ground, then displayed and recorded by the ground-based computer. The ground-based subsystem can also transmit instructions to the air-borne control subsystem. Good system performance has been demonstrated by more than 300 hours of flight for atmospheric sounding.