Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a radio tracking system and in particular, this invention relates to
the radio tracking system which is light enough to be carried along with main instruments
of a small sized balloon. More particularly, this present invention also relates to a radio
tracking system which consists of the wireless communicator, GPS receiver,
microcontroller, transmitter and receiver which are used independent of cellular network
or Iridium satellite. Furthermore, this present invention relates to the radio tracking
system which when coupled to a software enables one to recover the payloads
immediately after its return to the ground at the termination of the atmospheric and space
data acquisition.
Background of the invention and the related Prior Art
Since early years of radio physics, tracking of moving objects through radar is being
used. When carrying out scientific observations in space using large balloons or rockets
and satellites, Radar, Geo Positioning System (GPS) of satellites or Iridium satellites are
interchangeably used, all of which comprise of some form of radio tracking or other. In
recent years usage of GPS has made tracking even a pet very easy.
It has become the practice to obtain meteorological information pertaining to the
atmosphere at high altitudes through the use of balloons, by means of which
meteorological instruments are carried aloft to record temperature, pressure and humidity.
In employing this technique it is also desirable to track the course of balloons in flight in
order to obtain data on the velocity and direction of winds at various altitudes. To make
such determinations of practical value it is necessary to follow the course of balloons to
high altitudes and over appreciable distances. However, generally meteorological
balloons are not tracked, as the cost of the measuring instrument is much less than the
cost and risk involved. in the recovery of payloads as the balloon tracks are less
predictable. However when the cost of the instruments are high enough and the data is
not only about weather, but also from the atmosphere and space objects such as the Sun
and distant stars, it is imperative that we have a failsafe recovery system which is light
enough to be carried along with the main instruments or payloads. The present invention
pertains to this.
Although balloons have been tracked in the past by optical means, with the development
of radar systems it has become feasible to track balloons by the use of radio, waves.
Transmitted pulses of high frequency radio energy are directed at the balloon, and the
returned echo signals reflected there from provide continuous information as. to. the
course of the balloon through the atmosphere. This method makes it possible to trackthe
balloon over great distances and under varying conditions of weather and visibility..

In order to enhance the intensity of the echo signals, resonant targets may be suspended
from the balloon to effectively reflect radio signals from a distant transmitter to its
associated receiver. In this connection many types of resonant targets have been
proposed. Reflecting foils may be distributed at random within the balloon structure and
caused to adhere to the surface thereof. These windows or chaff provide a fairly effective
reflecting surface. Other targets may consist of flat planes covered with sheets of foil,
wire mesh, or other conducting material. This assembly may be suspended below the
balloon by a cable or cord. While these corner reflectors provide excellent reflecting
targets, their weight presents a disadvantage in using them with balloons where a high
rate of ascent is desirable. Furthermore, radar requires strong transmitters and receivers
not suitable for flexible systems.
In the document WO2014085638, the invention is a portable transport apparatus, having
an enclosure for containing an item to be transported, a RFID reader connected to a near
field antenna disposed within the enclosure for a first RFID reading of an area inside the
enclosure and to a far field antenna disposed on the enclosure for a second RFID reading
of an area outside the enclosure, and a wireless communication module, and a method of
use of the portable transport apparatus.
According to the document KR20130092169, a tag information transmission method of a
wireless tag and a tag location tracking system are provided to increase the lifespan of the
wireless tag by reducing the number of tag information transmission. A comparison
module compares the time slot number of a time slot signal received from a wireless tag
reader and the time slot number of a wireless tag and outputs a comparison result. If a
transmission result signal indicates that transmission of tag information has failed, a
retransmission standby time calculation module calculates retransmission standby time
and transmits to a control module. The control module receives the comparison result and
controls the wireless tag according to the comparison result and the transmission result
signal
The invention provides a data machine room behavior tracking method and system based
on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The method comprises the following steps:
firstly, activating an electronic tag by an RFID module in an RFID position sensor; then,
receiving information fed back by the electronic tag by the RFID module in the RFID
position sensor; then, transmitting receiving information to an authentication server, by
the RFID position sensor through a WIFI module; transmitting the information to a
behavior tracking module through the authentication server; and simulating 'the
information received by the tracking module into a behavior line by the behavior tracking
module and storing. The data machine room behavior tracking method and system have
the main beneficial effects that the behavior tracking system based on an RFID

technology utilizes a radio frequency identification technology of the RFID to record a
behavior track of corresponding personnel, so as to carry out inquiry when necessary
which has been stated in the document CN102938083.
Another patent relates to a countermovement entity tracking system which comprises
active tags, passive tags, portable equipment with a tag reading function and a data
center, wherein at least one part of active tags and at least one part of passive tags are
preset at fixed positions of a structural facility; the portable equipment with the tag
reading function is carried by a movement entity, and the data center stores current and/or
historical position information of the fixed active tags and the fixed passive tags;; and the
portable equipment with the tag reading function transmits read radio frequency tag
information and entity surrounding environment condition information to the data center
through a wireless technology, and the data center calculates the position of the
movement entity according to the pre-stored position information of the active/passive
tags and the received radio frequency tag information which has been stated in the
document CN102609669.
The patent document CN 102200774 provides a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
remote monitoring maintenance system of a sunlight tracking collector, belonging to the
technical field of energy saving environmental protection and relating to a system for
tracking and monitoring the sunlight by using the GPRS. The GPRS remote monitoring
maintenance system of the sunlight tracking collector mainly comprises a light collector
and a control device, wherein a photosensitive sensor is arranged in the middle of the
light collector; multiple lenses are arranged on the periphery of the light collector and
connected with a light guide optical fiber; the control device comprises a light collector
direction automatic controller and a monitor; the direction automatic controller. is
connected with the light collector by using a horizontal direction rotary driver and a
vertical direction driver; and the monitor is connected with the photosensitive sensor and
connected with a GPRS DTU (Data Terminal Unit) terminal via an interface. By using
the system provided by the invention, wireless a wide area IP (Internet Protocol)
connection can be provided by using a China Mobile's GPRS system. By using the GPRS
remote monitoring maintenance system of the sunlight tracking collector, provided by the
invention, the wireless remote monitoring and control of the sunlight tracking system can
be realized; and the GPRS remote monitoring maintenance system of the sunlight
tracking collector has the advantages of sufficient utilization of the current network,
reduction of the building period, reduction of the building cost, convenience for mounting
the equipment and simplicity for maintenance.
The other document CN201464916 discloses a movable model object real-time
positioning and tracking control system based on a radio frequency IC card. The movable

model object real-time positioning and tracking control system comprises a plurality of
radio frequency IC cards, a radio frequency IC identification device, a movable model
object wireless communication device and a control end wireless communication device,
wherein the radio frequency IC cards are continuously laid below a model road, the
movable model object wireless communication device is arranged on a movable model
object, and the control end wireless communication device is connected with the movable
model object wireless communication device through a wireless communication network.
Compared with the prior art, the movable model object real-time positioning and tracking
control system has the advantages of simple structure and accurate, quick and convenient
positioning and tracking, and can be applied to the model traffic systems to position,
track and monitor moving vehicles real-timely.
According to the document CN201392398, the invention relates to a real-time tracking
location radio-frequency identification and management system, which solves the
problems of the identification, tracking and location of persons or objects at a low cost, in
specific regions. A local area network is connected with wireless radio-frequency
identification middleware, a database server, an application server and at least one
wireless radio-frequency fixed reader respectively; and a radio-frequency identification
signal is transmitted between the each wireless radio-frequency identification fixed reader
and at least one electronic tag which is carried by the persons or the objects.
The document WO9209983 describes a method and apparatus is disclosed for
transmitting data about an object within a defined field and using the transmitted data to
generate a virtual object on the display screen of a computer. In one embodiment of the
present invention the object used to transmit input data is a wireless glove assembly. The
glove assembly supports a transmitting device which transmits data bursts, containing
position and gesture information, in the radio frequency wavelength to four stationary
receivers. The received signal is converted to a digital signal and input to a
microprocessor control unit. The software used in the microprocessor control unit uses an
averaging method to generate a virtual object on the computer display screen. The
position of the virtual object is calculated based on the strength of the signal received.
The movement of the virtual object on the computer display screen is in the same
direction as and is proportional to the glove movement.
According to the invention 1053/KOLNP/2006, a method is provided for coherently
tracking a radio signal including a plurality of digitally modulated reference subcarriers.
The method comprises the steps of receiving symbols transmitted on the reference
subcarriers, combining the reference subcarrier symbols with a known reference
sequence conjugate to produce a plurality of samples, median filtering the samples to
produce filtered samples, and smoothing the samples for each of the reference subcarriers

over the plurality of reference subcarriers to produce a coherent reference signal estimate
for each of the subcarriers. A receiver for coherently tracking a radio signal including at
least one digitally modulated reference carrier is also provided.
Other document CN1684394 discloses a wireless tracing system and a method contains a
tracer includes a first mobile phone module and a first wireless module, the first mobile
phone module can receive a tracing order and sends a positioning service requirement to
the base station and receives a piece of positioning information from the base station to
forward it to the tracer. The searcher includes second wireless module communicating
with the first wireless module, the first module sends an internal code signal after the
searcher starts the function of transmission of the first module and the second can
recognize the signal transmitted by the first module to trace the object to be traced.
The other document 1797/KOLNP/2008 illustrates the invention which states that a
method for symbol tracking in AM in-hand on-channel radio receivers comprises the
steps of: receiving a stream of time domain samples; assembling a set of the time domain
samples equal to a symbol time plus a half symbol delay in response to a symbol timing
adjustment value for each symbol period; interpolating the time domain samples;
partitioning the interpolated time domain samples into a first group of samples
representing half-off symbols and a second group of samples representing on-time
symbols; processing the first and second groups of samples to produce the symbol timing
adjustment value; and outputting the second group of samples representing on-time
symbols at a symbol rate. An apparatus that performs the method is also included..
The other document 1799/KOLNP/2008 describes the method for carrier tracking in AM
in-band on-channel radio receivers comprises the steps of receiving an input signal,
generating a local oscillator signal in response to an oscillator control signal, mixing the
input signal with a local oscillator signal to produce a first signal, filtering the first signal
at a decimated sample rate, detecting the phase error and frequency error of the filtered
first signal normalized to mitigate effects of signal fades, and using an adaptive loop filter
to produce the oscillator control signal in response to the phase error and frequency error
of the filtered first signal. An apparatus that performs the method is also provided.
None of the above patents, however alone or in combination, disclose the present
invention. Our invention consisting of certain novel features and a combination of parts
hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and particularly
pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the details,
may be made without departing from the spirit, or sacrificing any of the advantages of the
present invention.

Summary of the invention
This invention relates to a radio tracking system and in particular, this invention relates to
the radio tracking system which is light enough to be carried along with main instruments
of a small sized balloon. More particularly, this present invention also relates to a radio
tracking system which consists of the wireless communicator, GPS receiver,
microcontroller, transmitter and receiver which are used independent of cellular network
or iridium satellite. Furthermore, this present invention relates to the radio tracking
system which when coupled to a software enables one to recover the pay loads
immediately after returning to the ground at the termination of the atmospheric and space
data acquisition.
Detailed description of the invention with accompanying drawings
Astronomical observations for those radiation frequencies which are not allowed to
penetrate the Earth atmosphere rely on the satellite or balloon borne missions which carry
the payload above the atmosphere. But this has been very costly and time consuming
mission. With the advent of the technology to miniaturize electronic components, we
have started such observations using meteorological rubber balloons for doing
astronomical measurements. Besides, re-usability of the payload is a very important
factor to reduce the mission cost and to use more expensive payload. This calls for
efficient recovery of the payloads. Meteorologists have been using small balloons for
years where the payloads gather weather data like temperature, atmospheric pressure,
humidity etc. In most of the cases these payloads are not very costly and recovery is not
done due to problems in locating the instruments. Furthermore, the missions mentioned
above either use very strong, costly, heavy and inflexible (attached to the ground) radio
transmitter/receiver systems, or require mobile network on the ground for tracking. Both
of these are not useful for measurements with light instruments on board meteorological,
balloons or other similar light weight floating objects. Therefore a radio tracking system
has been developed which by removing the above drawbacks, achieve the goal of being
useful for flights with light weight balloons and also give equal emphasis to bring the
instruments back.
For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the invention, there are illustrations in
the accompanying drawings a preferred embodiment thereof, from an inspection of
which, when considered in connection with the following description, the invention, its
construction and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and
appreciated. The drawings are in three sheets.

FIG. 1 illustrates the Overall block Diagram of the radio Tracker Communication System
of the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates the Functional Block Diagram of the Transmitter of the Tracking
System of the present invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates the Functional Block Diagram of the receiving module of the tracking
system in the present invention;
FIG. 4 illustrates the predicted path of balloon landing done by the predictor software
using the data till the burst height.
FIG. 5 illustrates a technology demonstration of the utility of the invention by comparing
the predicted path by the predictor by plotting the real landing path on the predicted one
The impugned invention relates to a radio tracking system which is only a few hundred
grams, being light enough to be carried by smaller balloons already carrying other
scientific devices. This impugned invention requires a weak transmitter to send real time
data at least ~60 to ~100 km along the line of sight.
The main features of the radio tracking system of the impugned invention is to track in
real time, low cost, light weight weather balloons or floating objects which will fly to
near space of ~40 km altitude and bring the instruments back to Earth.
The other embodiment of the invention is to provide the radio tracking system, which
consists of the wireless communicator (transmitter and receiver), GPS receiver,
microcontroller and used independent of cellular networks and Iridium satellite.
The principal embodiment of the invention is to provide a radio tracking system with
payloads flying with balloons to gather earth science and space science related scientific
data for desired period of time and assist one to recover the instruments when they are
back to Earth as safely and securely as possible.
The other embodiment of the invention is to provide the radio tracking system which
tracks the instrument in real time and transmits us its altitude, latitude, longitude and
velocity in each direction in real time which enable us to predict the landing site very
accurately well ahead of time.
The other embodiment of the invention is to provide the radio tracking system which will
also predict the possible landing point of a payload even from partially available data and

from its trend analysis which helps the recovery team to be present at the landing site
before hand.
The other embodiment of the invention is to provide the radio tracking system wherein as
soon as the balloon gets burst, a possible landing location with path can be predicted
using data obtained during the rising phase till burst enabling the mobile squad to
efficiently reach the landing site and recover the items almost with minimal delay.
The other embodiment of the invention is that the method of tracking the location of the
balloon by using the radio tracking system which comprises:
a) the positional information along with other parameters obtained from the. GPS
receiver unit are transmitted to a processing unit where they are encapsulated in a
specified format by adding some extra information required for the
communication protocol;
b) these information are transformed into a suitable form using line coding
technique before RF modulation and the line coding uses Dual Tone Multiple
Frequency (DTMF) tones of 1200 and 2200 Hz for representing a digital 0 and 1
respectively ;
c) thereafter the transceiver as its normal course of operation transmits these data to
be received by receiving station(s) on the ground.
d) the receiving individual(s) in the ground after picking up the signal decode it
using a software packet decoder to get the transmitted information;
e) the location information, at the same time, is recorded and plotted on standard
maps on a screen to track how the balloon moves in space and eventually lands.
f) the recorded data is fetched by using a GUI software and this data are used to
predict the possible landing point and a possible landing path by the same GUI
software.
Since sizable fraction of the terrain could be hilly, forest area or water body where people
seldom go, it is very urgent to have a priori knowledge about the possible landing
location before actual landing. Besides, it is not desirable that the payload lands in a
densely populated area. But as the entire process of balloon flight and the landing by
parachute is completely unguided -no maneuver involved, the payload may land

anywhere. So, it is very urgent to recover the payload as early as possible after it reaches
ground. Hence the role of prediction utility (software) is very important. The prediction
software as a part of this invention provides simulation of a possible landing path and
landing location from the wind behaviour data while rising up to a height (e.g. burst
altitude). This is required so that we can eject the balloon(s) using telemetry commands at
a height to expect that it would land at respective the predicted location. The entire track,
between launching and landing could be long, and the duration of a typical flight could be
anywhere between 3 to 12 hours.
The requirement on the tracking system is that it must be low cost, light-weight (say
about half a kilogram) and sophisticated yet rugged enough to withstand cryogenic
temperature of -82 degree Celsius and near vacuum condition of hostile space apart from
turbulences faced in the Tropopause during ascend and descend. Furthermore, because
our 'Space for everyone' program, even high school students can participate, the system
should be user friendly.
The art of communication with an aerial object like satellite is not new. But the main
difficulty for making it handy lies in its form factor, weight and cost. Moreover, satellite
transponders rely on microwave up- and downlink signals requiring bulky parabolic
reflectors with high gain, directive antennas which have to be fixed on a ground station.
This defeats the purpose of our goal of having a system which should be so flexible.that
the launch site could be changed at will. Under these circumstances, a tracking.system
should be implemented which would satisfy the need of a beacon/transmitter at the same
time the ground system and the receiving antenna must be so handy to carry on any
normal vehicle. At the same time, the system should survive hostile situations as
mentioned above at a coverage distance of ~100 km (LOS) and under near-vacuum
pressure so as to transmit the signal to ground body or other floating bodies.
Figure 1 shows the overall block diagram representation of the tracking system including
the transmitting section, channel and the receiving section. The transmitting .section
gathers the necessary information (time, latitude, longitude, height, heading, speed etc.)
from the message/ information source (GPS receiving unit), adds some overhead
information for the sake of the communication protocol rused, does some suitable
transformation to be sent in the form of electro-magnetic waves. The channel is. the
portion where the transmitted data gets noisy due to presence of various noise sources in
the environment. The noisy data once received by the receiving antenna, gets suitably
retrieved to get back the original message sent by the transmitter.
The detailed architecture of the transmitting unit in block diagram representation is
shown in Figure 2. The transmitter comprises of message source, computing unit and
transmitter. The message source is the source of information. Here the source is a GPS

receiving module which obtains GPS data as NMEA sentences from the Global
Positioning System Satellites. The message source provides the data to the computing
unit. The computing unit is essentially a microcontroller. This is the heart of the
transmitting unit. It receives the information from the source, stores them in a temporary
buffer memory. It applies all the necessary logical, mathematical operations needed. It
parses the required information like time, latitude, longitude, altitude, heading direction
of the payload, speed over ground etc. from the buffered NMEA sentences from the GPS.
In any communication system verification of the sender and receiver and validation of
received data to check the originality with the original transmitted one is required. For
this reason, some extra information along with the desired message has to transmit. The
microcontroller here, performs these operations as per AX.25 protocol standards. This
process is called encapsulation of data into packets. The packetized data is in digital form
and for transmission these data needs to be translated into some equivalent analog
counterparts. The transmitting unit utilizes representing these digital data with two
sinusoidal tones of different frequencies. This method of coding digital data is called
Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF). Here, two sinusoid tone of 1200 and 2200 Hz
are used to represent the digital data. This approach in communication technology is
termed as line coding. The microcontroller does all these jobs. The sinusoids generated
by periodically loading suitable control words in the microcontroller's memory. The
frequency of the sinusoids can be changed by changing the control words. This was using
a single device (microcontroller) sinusoid of varying frequencies can be obtained. This
method of generating signal is called Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS). The line coded
packets then arrive the transmitter which consists of a Radio Frequency (RF) modulator
and a high gain antenna. This transmitter block is a conventional transceiver device for
voice communication. Here, unlike voice, the line coded signal is the input which is RF.
modulated and then transmitted in the medium by the antenna.
The counter part of the transmitting unit is the receiving unit. Figure 3 depicts different
modules of the receiving unit in form of block diagram. The receiving unit consists, of
receiver, software decoder (in a PC/ laptop), decoded data storage and visualization.
The first module is the receiving unit of the transceiver. The transmitted signal is
received by the antenna and retrieves the line coded packet from the RF modulated
signal. The reverse process of modulation is called as demodulation. The outcome is an
analog sinusoid signal (mixture of two 1200 and 2200 Hz tones) which is the input of the
software packet decoder software running in a laptop/ PC etc. This input is taken through
the audio (Microphone in) port of the computer which transforms these analog quantities
into equivalent digital ones. Next this digitized information is used by the software packet
decoder which removes the line codes, stripes the original message off packet containing
extra overhead information. Now the original information gathered from the message
source of the transmitting unit is retrieved and recorded in a data file. The original

information are nothing but the geographical positioning data of the payloads which can
be plotted over a map to visualize the instantaneous position of the payload on the map.
The transmitter sends GPS information packets after every user defined time interval,
e.g., 10 seconds. The latitude, longitude, altitude, time, wind speed and wind direction
information obtained from every GPS packet. Using this data, the landing prediction and
its possible landing path is calculated and plotted over Google maps. An online GUI
software is used to process this task. Different techniques/models have to be used for
different possible balloon flight options, such as, single balloon, double balloon, plastic
balloon or multi-balloon. The software has the capability to correct the prediction made
with past wind data as it uses the most current GPS data. The landing model/equation
generate in the same software with given parameter like balloon property, dimension of
parachute, balloon lift, payload weight etc. Figure 4 illustrates a snap shot of the GUI
prediction utility for landing. Here the red track is the predicted path of landing just after
the balloon burst. The blue track is the real time data obtained from the tracker unit as the
balloon rises. Figure 5 shows the validation of the prediction utility. Here the original
landing path after burst is plotted on the predicted path after recovery of the payload. The
whole blue track is the original data obtained from the tracker. The red one is again the
predicted path.
The radio tracker has a provision for sending telemetry commands in similar fashion from
the ground station to its counterpart in the sky. The microcontroller in there (Figure' 2)
can also process these commands and direct an attached module to control the flight by
ejecting the balloon(s), turning on/off any device and so on. The prediction utility plays
an important role in deciding these things. The possible landing location and predicted
path of landing is calculated on-the-go during the balloon flight. The users operating, in
the ground station can eject the balloons to make sure the payload to land nearby, the
predicted landing location. This helps a lot the mobile recovery squad chasing the balloon
during its flight.
Advantages over the prior art
The radio tracking system proposed by the present invention has the following
advantages over the prior art:
a) It is cost effective and economic to maintain.
b) This system can be assembled in a small light-weight payload of a few hundred gm
easing its inclusion in small balloon flights which can carry only light detectors.
c) Unlike Radar systems which use very heavy and strong transmitter or receiving
systems, the present invention can use only light weight mW range transmitter as there
are no obstructions along the line of sight.

d) The module transmits data throughout the course of flight. The overall architecture is
very flexible to accommodate a wide range of commercially available devices from
different manufacturers. The design allows a vast range of compatibility among the
interconnected devices.
e) It is light weight communication cum beacon instrument particularly suitable for High
Altitude Balloon projects and is especially helpful for prediction of landing site for quick
recovery as the team can reach the recovery area quickly after the flight is terminated and
the instruments are descending for landing.

(f) There could be several recovery teams or even receivers onboard other floating
stations, such as balloons. Recovery is done on the basis of 'first come first recovery' of
the payload.
(g) Real Time tracking of the payload helps in efficient and optimized recovery, even for
a unpredictable and complex trajectory and weather system;
(h) The tracking system allows hassle free tracking of HABs in an energy efficient
manner as it uses light weight batteries.
(i) This system can be handled by persons with minimum technical background, to
recover payloads based on the data; consequently this will reduce costs of skilled
workers.
(j) The system utilizes GUI based landing predictor software which uses a designed
library for landing for every possible type of missions (e.g. single balloon, double
balloon, plastic balloon, multi-balloon etc.). The software corrects the landing model
in real time from the instantaneous data obtained from the tracker.
Without further elaboration, the foregoing will so fully illustrate our invention that others
may, by applying current of future knowledge; readily adapt the same for use under
various conditions of service. It should also be realized by those skilled in the. art that
such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
In the preceding specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific
exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications and
changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of
the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are

accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense. Therefore, the
aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within
the true spirit and scope of the invention. The matter set forth in the foregoing description
and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation.
The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following clainis when
viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.

We Claim:
1) A radio tracking system which consists of;
a) wireless transceiver,
b) GPS receiver,
c) computing unit;
d) landing predictor software

2) The radio tracking system as claimed in claim 1, offers a simple and very much
flexible architecture and a wide variety of commercially available devices/
instruments can be interfaced with the same architecture which provides
modularity, abstraction between modules and great range of compatibility
between its components.
3) The radio tracking system as claimed in claim 1, provides a superb user
configurable energy efficient design where the users can easily configure the
duration of two successive transmissions to save power.
4) The radio tracking system as claimed in claim 1 offers a light weight small and
handy architecture to be used in payloads carried by small balloons and at the
same time the receiving units can be installed anywhere e.g. in a car, rooftop even
on a table top, either on the ground or on board floating objects.
5) The radio tracking system as claimed in claim 1 is also very rugged which
guarantees reliable operations under hostile conditions like cryogenic
temperature, vacuum/ near-vacuum atmospheric pressure, radiation above our
atmosphere (~40 km above ground) etc.
6) The radio tracking system as in claim 1, incorporates a landing predictor software
where a library has been designed containing different landing models for
different mission types (e.g., single balloon, double or multi-balloon, plastic
balloon etc.) selectable by users from a GUI.
7) The radio tracking system as claimed in claim 1 enables one to predict the landing
location using the most recent transmitted data to the ground station which helps
in recovery effort and the mobile squad can efficiently estimate their journey to
recover the item with minimal delay after landing, eventually leading the recovery
team to the landing site with the data transmitted after landing.