We present in this paper one of the first Internetaccessible airship simulators, based on a comprehensive airship dynamic model. The simulator is meant to be used as a tool for the development of control and navigation methods for autonomous and semiautonomous robotic airships and as testbed for airship pilot training. Realistic views of both the airship in flight and that of a virtual pilot ar...

A stratospheric airship is an airship flying at a high altitude of 20 km as a stratospheric platform. Due to the low atmospheric density and flight speed, the efficiency of a conventional actuator, such as an aerodynamic control surface, is decreased. Thus, a new multi-vectored thrust airship called a flat peach is discussed in this paper. This article describes the derivation, design and simul...

This paper presents and describes a new lenticular shaped airship that allows 3D omnidirectional movements. The airship is intended to be part of a cooperative aerial system based in the synergy between an airship and a group of micro-quad rotors capable of long time missions as environmental, biodiversity monitoring, WiSAR missions, road monitoring, detection of forest fires, etc. The emphasis...

AbstmctThis paper addresses the issue of automatic hovering of an outdoor autonomous airship using image-based visual servoing. The hovering controller is designed using a full dynamic model of the airship, in a PD error feedback scheme, taking the visual signals as output and extracted from an on-board camera. The behavior and stability of the airship motion during the task execution and subje...

This paper considers the problem of controlling both the planar position and orientation of an underactuated airship with a reduced number of actuators. The airship is a nonholonomic system described by a set of nonlinear equations and the dynamics are subject to bounded uncertainties. A smooth and time-varying coordinate transformation is utilized to reduce the stabilization problem of the air...

Future exploration of Saturn's moon Titan can be carried out by airships, which have the capability to study the atmosphere as well as the capability to land and study the surface at multiple locations. Several lighter-than-air gas airships and passive drifting heated-air balloon designs have been studied, but a heated-air airship could combine the best of both. A design tool was created to ena...

Trajectory tracking control using Optimal Uncertainty Quantification (OUQ) is proposed in this paper. OUQ gives optimal bounds on the probability of failure in tracking a trajectory when information and assumptions about the system are given. As a case study, control of an airship to track a trajectory is considered in the paper. In controlling the system in tracking a mission trajectory, a rig...

A new concept of airship without thrust, elevator or rudder is considered in this thesis. It is actuated by a moving mass and a mass-adjustable internal air bladder. This results into the motion of the center of gravity and the change of the net lift. The development of this concept of airship is motivated by energy saving. An eight degrees-of-freedom complete nonlinear mathematical model of th...

Lighter-than air vehicles are an attractive solution for many applications requiring a sustained airborne presence. The buoyancy force provides an energy-free form of lift, offering a non-traditional approach to long-duration missions for which traditional aircraft are not well-suited. Potential applications include roving or hovering surveillance and communication utilities for both military a...

A pan-tilt control technique for the camera orientation of the airship is proposed. This technique is constructed by combining the airship states and the error of the image centre as a feedback. For the ground target coordinates testing system installed in airship, a two dimension pan-tilt is used to drive the camera tracking the ground target in order to catch the image of the measured target ...