Autonomous Balloon Controls for Protection against Projectiles with Known Destinations

Abstract

This article tackles autonomous balloon controls for protection against projectiles with known destinations. We introduce a defense strategy against an enemy projectile trying to reach a destination, such as a military base, which is known a priori. We further assume that the position of the platform that launches the projectile is known in advance. Because both the platform and the projectile's destination are known in advance, we can predict the trajectory of the projectile before the projectile is launched. The proposed defense strategy is to deploy multiple balloons on the projectile's feasible paths so that they block the incoming projectile effectively. Each balloon has GPS sensors for locating itself and IR sensors to detect an incoming projectile. Once the projectile is sufficiently close to a balloon, the balloon explodes to destroy the projectile. Since the projectile's purpose is reaching its destination, the balloons can effectively intercept the projectile using this blocking strategy. As far as we know, this article is novel in utilizing multiple balloons for protection against an enemy projectile. The effectiveness of our defense strategy is further verified utilizing MATLAB simulations.