Modeling and Control of Swing Oscillation of Underactuated Indoor Miniature Autonomous Blimps

Abstract

Swing oscillation is widely observed among indoor miniature autonomous blimps (MABs) due to their underactuated design and unique aerodynamic shape. This paper presents the modeling, identification and control system design that reduce the swing oscillation of an MAB during hovering flight. We establish a dynamic model to describe the swing motion of the MAB. The model parameters are identified from both physical measurements, computer modeling and experimental data captured during flight. A control system is designed to stabilize the swing motion with features including low latency and center-of-mass (CM) position estimation. The modeling and control methods are verified with the Georgia-Tech Miniature Autonomous Blimp (GT-MAB) during hovering flight. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can effectively reduce the swing oscillation of GT-MAB.

Swing-Reducing Flight Control System for an Underactuated Indoor Miniature Autonomous Blimp

“…The GT-MAB has symmetric design around the vertical axes and capable of pointing the thrust vector in arbitrary 3D direction. Therefore, our previous work [34] has reduced the full 6-DOF motion model of the GT-MAB to 3-DOF movement on a vertical plane. Shown in Fig.…”

“…Moreover, PID controllers were implemented for the motion primitives of MABs with tilting [6], quadcopter-like [32], and flow-deflecting [33] actuator configurations. Our previous work [17] designed a control system to stabilize the swing oscillation during hovering flight. Unfortunately, the control system introduced in [17] cannot stabilize the oscillation in while the blimp is in translational flight.…”

“…Our previous work [17] designed a control system to stabilize the swing oscillation during hovering flight. Unfortunately, the control system introduced in [17] cannot stabilize the oscillation in while the blimp is in translational flight. Our recent paper [34] identified the motion model of the coupled translational and rotational movements of the indoor blimp, GT-MAB.…”

“…Unfortunately, the control system introduced in [17] cannot stabilize the oscillation in while the blimp is in translational flight. Our recent paper [34] identified the motion model of the coupled translational and rotational movements of the indoor blimp, GT-MAB. However, the controller design was not presented in [34].…”

“…Our recent paper [34] identified the motion model of the coupled translational and rotational movements of the indoor blimp, GT-MAB. However, the controller design was not presented in [34].…”