# The NOVABOT play: a mini airship dedicated to capturing video of an actor on stage

Youssra Mansar, François Bernier, Sylvain Blayac, Louis Dieuzayde, Julien R Serres

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## ► To cite this version:

Youssra Mansar, François Bernier, Sylvain Blayac, Louis Dieuzayde, Julien R Serres. The NOVABOT play: a mini airship dedicated to capturing video of an actor on stage. 50e congrès de la Société de Biomécanique, Oct 2025, Marseille, France., 2025, 10.46298/mbj.16148. hal-05344562

HAL Id: hal-05344562

https://hal.science/hal-05344562v1

Submitted on 3 Nov 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# The NOVABOT play:
a mini airship dedicated to capturing video of an actor on stage

Youssra Mansar*¹,², François Bernier³,⁴, Sylvain Blayac³,⁴, Louis Dieuzayde², Julien R Serres¹,⁵

1 Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
3 Mines Saint-Étienne, Centre CMP, Département FEL, Gardanne, France
5 Institut Universitaire de France, IUF, Paris, France

2 Aix Marseille Univ, LESA, Aix-en-Provence, France
4 Mines Saint-Étienne, Centre CMP, ID-Fab, Gardanne, France
*Corresponding author: [youssra.mathon@etu.univ-amu.fr](mailto:youssra.mathon@etu.univ-amu.fr)

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# AIM
Investigating how capture and projection technologies reshape the actor's body and stage perception

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Photo credit: Cyril Sollier

Choice of the flying platform: **Indoor Airship**

* Chosen for quiet, safe, and autonomous interaction with the actor

* Allows secure movement in confined spaces

* Actor can handle and interact without voice masking from propellers

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## Experimental set-up

ID-Fly airship
Design and fabrication

On board ID-Fly blimp
Embedded Electronics

**Custom envelope**

2.06 m × 0.82 m
737 L
600 g lift

**Frame**

Lightweight 3D-printed and basket

**Components**

Raspberry Pi Zero W
4 DC motors
Camera
Cables along carbon rods

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Photo credit: Édouard Le

Raspberry Pi Zero W running Debian 10; 128 GB micro-SD.

Powered by 3.7 V Li-ion battery; voltage boosted to 5 V.

Custom motor shield controls 4 motors; video streamed live to projector.

Remote-controlled to achieve desired scenic effect; full autonomy challenging.

## Towards Stage-Ready Autonomous Airships

**Flight behavior**

* Generates slow movements, highly sensitive to air currents (incl. air conditioning)

* Buoyancy adjusted by adding weight before each performance → stable, smoother trajectories.

* Produces a peaceful and contemplative aerial presence on stage.

* Continuous visual link possible, but always subject to environmental variations.

**Technological development**

* Ongoing design of The Novabot flying robot (≤ 100 g).

* Safe to fly near audience and actor.

* Minimized engine noise and energy consumption → increased autonomy and interaction.

**Towards autonomy**

* Constraints push the design to the state-of-the-art in miniature autonomous airships [3,4].

* Next challenge: AI-based visual tracking of actor's body/face (≤ 1 m distance).

* Aim → avoid reliance on motion capture systems while maintaining precise tracking.

## Conclusion

This interdisciplinary research leads to a public performance that both innovates artistically and opens ethical, aesthetic, and political reflections on our interaction with machines and images, while going beyond the state of the art in art [2].

## References

[1] Mansar, Y., Bernier, F., Blayac, S., Serres, J.R., & Dieuzayde, L. (2023). NOVABOT: Acteur et drone. Dialectique du corps en scène et de son image fragmentée. In Drôles d'objets-Un nouvel art de faire, 15-17 May 2023, Nancy, France. HAL: https://hal.science/hal-04101507/
[2] Paré Z. (2016). L'Âge d'or de la robotique japonaise. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
[3] Gorjup, G., & Liarokapis, M. (2020). A low-cost, open-source, robotic airship for education and research. IEEE Access, 8, 70713-70721.
[4] Zhang, F., Tao, Q., Tan, T. J., Cheng, P. S. T., Sungjin, C. H. O., Mishra, V., & Varnell, J. P. (2022). Miniature Autonomous Robotic Blimp. U.S. Patent No. 11,511,842. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.