Paper:
Hovering Control of Outdoor Blimp Robots Based on Path Following
Hitomu Saiki*, Takanori Fukao*, Takateru Urakubo**,
and Takashi Kohno***
*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
**Department of System Science, Kobe University, Japan
***Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
After large-scale disasters, a surveillance system is required to gather information about the stricken area safely and quickly. An autonomous blimp is the best option for this purpose. This paper proposes a control design method for automatic hovering of outdoor blimp robots under strong winds by a path-following approach. The method consists of inverse optimal path-following control in the horizontal plane and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control for altitude and pitching motion of the blimp in the longitudinal plane. Some simulations and experiments for a 12m class outdoor blimp are performed to confirm the usefulness of the proposed method.
and Takashi Kohno, “Hovering Control of Outdoor Blimp Robots Based on Path Following,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.23, No.2, pp. 207-214, 2011.
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