Design and verification of controllers for airships

Robotic airships have several beneficial properties such as low operation cost, low noise, and low speed flight capability. We present in this paper the design and verification of a feedback control algorithm for waypoint to waypoint navigation of an outdoor blimp. A Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) is used for the validation of the blimp system control law. We describe an implementation of an algorithm that systematically searches the set of all disturbances to validate viability of the control law in the presence of winds. Experimental results with a simulator show that the RRT method can be effective in verifying controller design under unpredictable but bounded disturbances. Comments Copyright 2003 IEEE. Reprinted from Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003), Volume 1, pages 54-60. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it. This conference paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/meam_papers/42 Proceedings of the 2003 IEEURSJ InU. Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Las Vegas. Nevada ' October 2003 Design and Verification of Controllers for Airships Jongwoo Kim Jim Keller Vijay Kumar General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory University of Pennsylvania, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 E-mail: Cjwk, jtkeiler, kumar}@grasp.cis.upenn.edu Abstract-Robotic airships have several bene6cial p m p erties such as low operation cost, low noise, and low speed flight capability. We present in this paper the design and verification of a feedback control algorithm for waypoint to waypoint navigation of an outdoor blimp. A Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) is used for the validation of the blimp system control law. We describe an implementation of an algorithm that systematically searches the set of all disturbances to validate viability of the control law in the presence of winds. Experimental results with a simulator show that the RRT method can be effective in verifying controller design under unpredictable but bounded disturbances.Robotic airships have several bene6cial p m p erties such as low operation cost, low noise, and low speed flight capability. We present in this paper the design and verification of a feedback control algorithm for waypoint to waypoint navigation of an outdoor blimp. A Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) is used for the validation of the blimp system control law. We describe an implementation of an algorithm that systematically searches the set of all disturbances to validate viability of the control law in the presence of winds. Experimental results with a simulator show that the RRT method can be effective in verifying controller design under unpredictable but bounded disturbances.