International Conference On Electric Airships - Challenges for Commercialization

Speakers and Topics
Abstract submission for presentations and posters is open

Invited Speakers:

Udo Berthold, MITEB, Germany 

• Safety Aspects for Unmanned Airships

The principle of “lighter than air” generates a fundamentally different behavior of the aircraft with regard to risks on the ground and in the air. Making sensible use of the intrinsic safety advantages can open up new application potential, for example when flying beyond visual line of sight and over densely populated areas.

Spencer Horne, Founder and CEO of Cloudline, Southafrica

• Solar Airships: What Price Scale?

As solar airship technology matures beyond proof-of-concept demonstrations, the fundamental question of optimal scale becomes central to its commercial success. This presentation examines the relationship between airship size and solar power integration, drawing parallels to Von Karman and Gabrielli's classic analysis of speed-power relationships in aircraft design, through the lens of our experiences in building at Cloudline.

Sylvain Allano, Flying Whales, France

• Contribution of solar energy to the global Information-Energy system of a cargo airship

Although it is clear that solar cells placed on or in the envelope of a cargo airship could not alone meet the power requirements for hovering operations, recent progress made in solar textiles makes it possible to consider their use for specific functions within the airship. However, their impact on the thermodynamics of the airship will have to be taken into account, with the risk of uncontrolled heating of the helium cells.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum, Professorship for Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

• Route Optimization of Large Airships with Solar Cells

Route optimization of large airship is a difficult from algorithmic point of view. It has to include wind data, clouds, solar irradiance and  battery charge level. Simulation results and impact on travel time will be discussed.

Barry E. Prentice, ISO Polar Airship Assoc

• Airships for Mining Critical Mineral

New technologies that require rare earth minerals for magnets, batteries, and electronics have created a growing demand, while trade issues have reduced supply from China. Canada is a potential beneficiary because 32 different critical mineral deposits are known to exist in the North. The problem is obtaining access. The distances are too long and the costs of building roads in too high. This has created market for cargo airships that is large enough to sustain a new manufacturing industry. This presentation sets out the economics and potential of cargo airships to accessing critical mineral in remote locations.

Ross Prentice, CEO BASI

• Cold Weather Testing Facility for Northern Operations

Bonnet-Eymard Bénédicte, CSEM Neuchâtel, Switzerland

• Lightweight solar modules implementing advanced polymer materials and solar cells

With a decade of expertise in lightweight solar modules, CSEM has crafted specialized PV products for applications demanding minimal added weight and high power output with precise assessment, design, and installation for optimal integration. This talk will highlight past achievements and explore future possibilities.

Daniel Wibbing, Roboloon, Germany

• Environmental Robustness of Unmanned Airships

For a long time aerial inspections of our energy and mobility infrastructures have been carried out by noisy, fuel guzzling helicopters. Today new kinds of small unmanned airships are trying to replace them. How can they achieve the required pin point accuracy even under adverse environmental conditions? Daniel Wibbing from roboloon will give us insights into his experiences with the matter.

Bentheimer, Christian , Fraunhofer IISB, Germany

• Cryogenic Power Electronics and Superconducting Aircraft Powertrains

Superconducting technologies will be a key enabler for the electrification of future hydrogen-electric powered aircraft. It will lead to performance improvements of the propulsion system, translating into significant weight and fuel saving potential. The presentation gives an insight about the design basics and challenges of cryogenic powertrains.

Prof. Patrick Hendrick, ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles 

• Airship Drones: H2 vs. Helium as lifting gas

The presentation will highlight the advantages and drawbacks of using hydrogen as the lifting gas of LTA UAVs, including the use of H2 for the (electric) propulsion system of the LTA drones.

Prof. Carlo Riboldi, Politecnico di Milano

• On the technical and economic feasibility of unmanned airships: a comparative study

This contribution discusses the profitability of unmanned LTAs, based on the comparison of purpose-designed LTA platforms vs. multi-copter and fixed-wing UAVs, as well as manned helicopters, considering three missions currently flown by these flying machines and compatible with the technical abilities of small-scale, autonomously-flying LTAs.

Oliver Gochermann, Managing Director, Gochermann Solar Technology

• Bespoke solar arrays in mobile applications past achievements, current developments, future goals

Piers Olsen, Chairman of Olsen Actuators & Drives

• Propellor pitch actuation

Olsen Actuators & Drives is a UK engineering company specializing in the design and manufacture of high precision electro-mechanical actuator systems - both linear and rotary - including associated servo drives, motors, encoders and bespoke XYZ gantry solutions. Their products are used in demanding sectors such as aerospace, defense, marine, space, eVTOL and industrial automation. 

Simon Gehringer, EVOLONIC

• VLMs onboard of airships for scene understanding in a wildfire context

Early wildfire detection is critical for effective suppression efforts. While CV techniques offer reliable fire detection, they often lack contextual understanding. To address this VLMs were utilized to generate structured scene descriptions from UAV imagery. To achieve long flight times, airships are used as the platform. Our results demonstrate, that such compact VLMs, that can be run onboard the airships, can provide rich contextual information.

Registration

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