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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Many UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are and have been used to handle the 6
degrees of freedom that the real world imposes, most of them are either helicopter or blimp
based. This chapter explains the information that helps the reader determine if you have a basic
understanding of the research problem being investigated and information that provides
essential context needed to understand the research problem. Stated also here the shortcomings
of the past researchers and the used of blimp in the present generation and the significance of
this research. Enumerated the different objectives to be accomplished along the research also
herein lies the problem of the existing prototype. In this chapter also in lies the different theories
and ideas exist in relation to the research.

1.1 Background of the Study


It has been three years since this research about unmanned blimp of the Computer
Engineering 5th year students of Mindanao University of Science and Technology started.
Based on the gathered information of the past researchers we concluded that this research
needs more imprecision mostly in its stability part. The previous researcher used the fuzzy
controller to stabilize the blimp but due to financial problem they were unable to provide
helium which is used to lift the blimp. In addition to that they were not able to optimize and
test it in an actual scenario.
Nowadays blimp is ideal for such uses as covering sporting events, advertising and some
research, like scouting for whales. Recently, there has been renewed interest in using rigid
airships for lifting and/or transporting heavy cargo loads, like ships, tanks and oil rigs, for
military and civilian purposes. In addition to hauling cargo, airships may once again be used
for tourism. So, the sight of a large airship moving across the sky may become more common
in the near future.

Fig. 1. Blimp covering a brown stadium

Fig.2. Blimp as cargo lifter

The present researchers' interest is to optimize and test the stability of the blimp using the
fuzzy controller which is considered as an advanced method of implementing feedback control
system. It is considered as very robust, supports for multiple outputs and multiple output
system. It is cheap and easier to implement.

1.2 Statement of the Problem


The stability of the blimp while in the air is one of the primary concerns in the current
study. The prior study regarding stabilization is just through a manual control with the use of
feed forward control system wherein the blimp can still be diminish considering the presence
of our natural occurrence of weather interference in the air. Also, the pilot needs to make the
blimp stable in order to perform basic maneuvering like backward, forward, up, down and
turning the blimp left to right. Owing to, the blimp should be able to keep itself stabilized
without the help of manual control in any situation while on flight using a feedback control
system. But in order to implement this control system, the blimp must be operating in which it
can perform the basic maneuvering or move skillfully or carefully.

1.3 Objectives
The study mainly aims to compensate disturbances in order to attain a stabilized orientation
using feedback control system. Thus, it will help the pilot of the airship because she/he will
only concern about the basic maneuvering like forward, backward, up, down and turning left
and right. To accomplish this, the following must be attained:

- To be able to purchase the helium with the right amount at specific date.
- To be able to tune and optimize the controller.
- Installation of specific hardware sensor. This will be the accelerometer, gyroscope,
barometer and magnetometer data that will serve as inputs to microcontroller. In this way,
it can save the cost and could reduce additional hardware installation.
- Integrating the components of the blimp and testing the combined controllers like the
gyroscope and accelerometer sensor reading for achieving the most accurate data. Thus, it
will make the airship more stable.
- Use the developed Arduino program that implement the self-stabilization control using
a fuzzy controller concept.
- Implementation of the fuzzy controller for stabilization for the airship.

1.4 Significance of the Study


The BLIMP is a non-rigid aerostat. This study will be significant endeavor in maneuvering
the existing prototype which is the BLIMP. This includes the feature of stabilization in
controlling the indistinct air condition happening above.
Moreover, this BLIMP has a lot of possible uses that is very useful in a civilization. It can
be used for traffic monitoring by inserting a closed-circuit television where a user can see the
aerial view through a specific application in smartphones which is connected to the camera in
the BLIMP. It can also be used in a congregated place as live media coverage in events at large
places like arenas. It can also be used as a flying WI FI in establishments or at places where a
large range could access to it. And there are a lot more possible uses we could ever imagine.
This study is to make sure that it is all possible for the BLIMP. That is why stabilizing it
is very important. It is also very helpful and it belongs to the fast and evolving current trends.

1.5 Theoretical Framework


Airships are called lighter-than-air (LTA) craft because to generate lift, they use gases that
are lighter than air. The most common gas in use today is helium, which has a lifting capacity
of 0.064 lb/ft3 (1.02 kg/m3). Hydrogen was commonly used in the early days of airships
because it was even lighter, with a lifting capacity of 0.070 lb/ft3 (1.1 kg/m3) and was easier
and cheaper to acquire than helium but the latter was planned to be used in this study.
While these lifting capacities might not seem like much, airships carry incredibly large
volumes of gas -- up to hundreds of thousands of cubic feet (thousands of cubic meters). With
this much lifting power, airships can carry heavy loads easily.
This section of this paper is based in some previous studies related to an airship or a blimp
but mostly are referred to a study where blimp is controlled using a remote. Blimp in this study
were called an RC airship.
An RC airship can broadly be divided into the five main components, viz., Gondola,
Propulsion system, Stabilizer and Fins, Remote Control system, and Envelope. The
methodology arrives at the sizing and layout of an RC airship based on the user specified
performance and operational requirements. Some activities related to the design of RC airships
are quite similar to that of RC aircraft, for instance the gondola, which is quite similar to that
of the fuselage of a low speed RC aircraft. But there are some differences and additional options
available while designing other components. For instance, the propulsion system of RC airships
can be similar to RC aircraft, i.e., provision of thrust by propellers driven either by DC motors
with onboard batteries or the IC engines. However, a thrust vectoring system is usually
employed in RC airships to enhance its performance capabilities and controllability. The
stabilizer and fins are sized keeping in mind the stability and control requirements,
respectively; however, the dynamics of an airship are quite different from that of an aircraft,
so the same sizing formulae and procedures cannot be used. Further, a yaw-motor is generally
fitted in the stabilizer if the size of the fins is found to be insufficient to provide the required
turn rates. The envelope of an RC airship has a similar function as the wing of an aircraft, i.e.,
providing the lifting force to overcome gravity; however, it is quite different in shape and size,
mainly due to the radically different mechanism for generating the lift force.
Air flow around Envelope and Pressure Distribution at = 0, = 0
Fig 1 shows the air flow around an envelope when angle of attack and angle of yaw are zero.
Velocity goes on decreasing in front of the envelope and reaches a value of zero (V = 0) at
the forward most point on envelope.

Fig 1. Air flow around the envelope

As the flow continues around the envelope, the velocity goes on increasing and
becomes equal to V and then, somewhere near the maximum diameter, reaches a maximum,
which is much larger than V, so indicated as V. As the flow further moves ahead around
the envelope, the velocity goes on decreasing and reaches theoretical value of zero at the
rearmost point of envelope, and then again increases to the free stream value of V.
Fig. 2 shows the external air pressure distribution around the envelope, caused by this air flow.

Section A-A

Fig. 2 Variation of pressure outside the envelope

If the internal pressure in the envelope is not sufficient, the nose will cave in under this
external pressure. Thus internal static pressure at the nose w.r.t. atmosphere should be at least
equal to the external stagnation pressure as calculated in Eq. 1.

= 2 2

(1)

In practice, the differential pressure at the centerline is kept at 15% higher than the
maximum anticipated internal static pressure. If the envelope is filled till the pressure at nose
equals to Pint, the differential pressure will not be the same everywhere, because of small

hydrostatic effect occurring due to the gas as well as the air outside the envelope. Thus at a
height h below the centerline, the differential pressure is calculated using Eq.2.

= +

(2)

It is clear from Fig. 3 that maximum differential pressure occurs at the maximum
diameter.

Fig 3. Pressure distribution due to various terms [5]

In order to get total differential pressure, we should add the aerodynamic suction
pressure which is calculated using Eq. 3
1

= = 2 2

(3)

The total differential pressure is given by Eq. 4.


= + +

(4)

Once the differential pressure values have been calculated across different sections the
maximum pressure coefficients can easily be identified from the pressure distribution plot as
shown in Fig.3. The maximum value of Center of Pressure Cp occurs at the maximum diameter,
and its magnitude is found to be -0.33. It may be noted that the maximum differential pressure
occurring due to head also occurs at maximum diameter.
The total differential pressure at the maximum diameter is calculated using Eq. 5 as.

= + + ( ) 2

(5)

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
This chapter presents the related literature and studies after the thorough and in-depth
reading done by the researchers.
RELATED STUDIES
[1] James H. Boschma develop and design Small Aerostat Surveillance System, Low
Intensity Target Exploitation (SASS LITE) unmanned airship on 1988. It reports on the current
status and operations and discusses potential future applications as well as how it fills two voids
in UAV community which 1) It offers a reliable, noninterfering mobile airborne
instrumentation platform, and 2) It offers a long endurance, stable platform ideal for detailed,
high resolution survey of low intensity targets. The developmental funding history, details of
acceptance by airspace managers for operations in close proximity to air traffic and ground
personnel, the evolution of the electronic control systems, and the various sensor payloads are
highlighted. Finally, it discusses emerging applications and demands.
[2] Elfes, Bueno, Bergerman, and Ramos discusses Project AURORA (autonomous
unmanned remote monitoring robotic airship) on January 1998 which focuses on the
development of the control, navigation, sensing, and inference technologies required for
substantially autonomous robotic airships. Our target application areas include the use of
robotic airships for environmental, biodiversity, and climate research and monitoring. Based
on typical mission requirements, we present arguments that favor airships over airplanes and
helicopters as the ideal platforms for such missions. We outline the overall system architecture
of the AURORA robotic airship, discuss its main subsystems, and mention the research and
development issues involved.

[3] Paiva, Bueno, Gomes, and Ramos describes a Simulink-based control system
development environment for Project AURORA's unmanned robotic airship, as well as the
control algorithms and supervisory level of AURORA's control system on May 1999. A
complete take-off to landing mission illustrates the utilization of this environment.
[4] Goineau shows that the response to controls of a neutrally buoyant non-rigid airship
was investigated for a range of speeds from the hover to 30 m/s using a non-linear simulation
model on August 1999. The responses shown include both flight path and a range of motion
variables. The latter show the influence of the stability modes on control. The controls included
in the airship model comprise equivalent elevator, equivalent rudder, thrust magnitude and
thrust vector direction. A linearized state model of the airship was obtained from the simulation
model for a range of speeds from the hover to 30 m/s. The validity of the linearized model for
short term evaluation of stability and control was confirmed by matching linear response plots
with those obtained from the simulation model. By making assumptions about the nature of
response, the state equations were simplified to enable algebraic approximations for the
stability modes to be derived by analysis. The approximate models were shown to compare
favorably with the actual modes obtained in the solution of the equations of motion.
[5] J. G. Ramos, E. C. de Paiva, J. R. Azinheira, and S. S. Beuno aims at the
development of an unmanned airship capable of autonomous flight over user-defined locations
for aerial inspection and imagery acquisition on May 2001. The authors report a successful
autonomous flight achieved through a set of pre-defined points, one of the first of its kind in
the literature. The guidance control strategy is based on a path tracking error generation
methodology that takes into account both the distance and the angular errors of the airship with
respect to the desired trajectory. The control strategy uses a PI controller for the tail surfaces'
deflection.

[6] Hygounenc and Soueres deals with the autonomous airship control in a case of very
low perturbations on Oct 2002. A flight decomposition allowing one to define canonical
navigation phases from take-off to landing is proposed. For each phase a reduced model is
determined and a controller is designed on the base of backstepping techniques. This approach
allows one to consider the kinematic and dynamic requirement separately. Due to the
decoupling properties, an equilibrium state is reached at the end of each flight phase, allowing
one to model easily the transition between them. Simulations of the different controllers are
presented for a realistic model of blimp including aerostatic, dynamic and aerodynamic effects.
[7] Park, Lee, Tahk, and Bang shows that airship is a highly nonlinear plant which
requires gain scheduled controller for various flight conditions on June 2003. Model inversion
control is augmented with neural network to control the airship. The input-output feedback
linearization allows one to design a linear controller from a nonlinear system. Neural network
is used to compensate the nonlinearities resulting from this linearization. The control technique
is applied to two different airship flight conditions. The results shows that control technique is
successful in controlling both conditions.
[8] Hygounenc, Jung, Soures, and Lacroix provides a progress report of the LAASCNRS project of autonomous blimp robot development, in the context of field robotics on April
2004. Hardware developments aimed at designing a generic and versatile experimental
platform are first presented. On this base, the flight control and terrain mapping issues, which
constitute the main thrust of the research work, are presented in two parts. The first part,
devoted to the automatic control study, is based on a rigorous modeling of the airship
dynamics. Considering the decoupling of the lateral and longitudinal dynamics, several flight
phases are identified for which appropriate control strategies are proposed. The description
focuses on the lateral steady navigation. In the second part of the paper, we present work on
terrain mapping with lowaltitude stereovision. A simultaneous localization and map building
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approach based on an extended Kalman filter is depicted, with details on the identification of
the various errors involved in the process. Experimental results show that positioning in the
three-dimensional space with a centimeter accuracy can be achieved, thus allowing the
possibility to build high-resolution digital elevation maps.
[9] Ollero and Merino presents several unmanned aerial vehicle platforms. Then
summarizes different control techniques including both control architectures and control
methods on May 2004. Furthermore, computer vision techniques for aerial robotics are briefly
considered. Finally, the paper presents systems and projects involving multiple autonomous
aerial and ground systems.
[10] Xia and Corbett research about the cooperative control of multiple unmanned
blimps poses significant theoretical and technical challenges in June 2004. A cooperative
control system is presented to search for targets by using unmanned blimps, and the conceptual
system is built with two blimps and the base station. We discuss the software structure in the
base station computer, and the blimp dynamic models are expressed in the form suited for
controller design. A control strategy is proposed, and Lyapunov stability theory is used to
guarantee that sliding mode controllers make asymptotic system stability. A set of simulation
studies is done, and the simulation results show that the system can work cooperatively and
effectively.
[11] Moutinho and Azinheira presents a stability and robustness analysis of a nonlinear
control system for the autonomous airship of the AURORA project in January 2005. A
Dynamic Inversion controller is implemented with desired dynamics given by a linear optimal
compensator. The stability analysis of the nonlinear system is done applying Lyapunovs
stability theory. Robustness tests are performed in order to verify the nonlinear controller
performance in face of disturbances and model parameters errors. The results obtained illustrate

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the overall system robustness, and point at the most sensitive model parameters of the
AURORA airship, for which a more careful identification/determination should be carried.
[12] Beji and Abichou addresses the problem of designing tracking feedback control of
an underactuated autonomous UAV in March 2005. The ascent and descent flight conditions
as one in which the rate of change (of magnitude) of the airship's state vector is zero and the
resultant of the applied forces and moments is constant lead to trimmed flight trajectories. The
subject of the tracking control is to stabilize the engine around the planned flight. Using a
combined integrator backstepping approach and Lyapunov theory, the stability results are local
and overcome the minimum number of actuators (inputs) with respect to the blimp's six degrees
of freedom. Considering physic limits in UAVs, other trimmed flights are investigated and
compared.
[13] Azinheira and Moutinho aims to introduce a novel approach for the airship hove
stabilization problem on July 2006. A synthetic modelling of the airship dynamics is introduced
using a quaternion formulation of the kinematics equations. Based on this model, a
backstepping design formulation is deduced for the aircraft hovering control. In order to deal
with limitations due to reduced actuation, saturations are introduced in the control design, and
the global asymptotic stability of the system under saturation is demonstrated. The control
objective is finally modified to cope with the strong lateral underactuation. Simulation results
are presented for the hover stabilization of an unmanned robotic airship, with wind and
turbulence conditions selected to demonstrate the behavior and robustness of the proposed
solution.
[14] Liu, Hu, and Yu presents a 6DOF (degree of freedom) nonlinear dynamic model
for a special kind of airship, which is based on the body axes coordinate system with the origin
at the center of the volume on August 2007. Firstly, the related physical principles of airship

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are comprehensively reviewed. Then, the nonlinear dynamic model is linearized based on
linear perturbation theory, and divided into longitudinal and lateral equations. The stability,
mode, controllability and turbulence motion of the airship are studied through the presented
model. Simulation results demonstrate that the lateral and longitudinal motions of the airship
are static stable and controllable, and the longitudinal and lateral motions can be divided into
three modes according to the different eigenvalues respectively.
[15] Paiva, Benjovengo, Bueno, and Mouthinho presents the research developments
for the global nonlinear control of an autonomous airship, covering the full flight envelope
from hovering to aerodynamic flight on September 2007. The preliminary reports for the three
nonlinear control solutions under investigation were presented, that are Dynamic Inversion,
Backstepping, and the Sliding Mode Control, along with some representative simulation
results. A complete airship mission, with vertical take-off, path tracking, hovering, and vertical
landing was successfully simulated using the Backstepping Aproach.
[16] Solaque, Pinzon, and Duque shows that robotic lighter-than-air vehicles (type of
unanimated air vehicle UAV), provide a promissory strategic platform for the transport,
exploration and surveillance on September 2008. This paper presents an approach to the control
of a small sized airship in cruise flight phase; specifically, non-linear control by extended
linearization is considered. In order to make this control, a study of the dynamic model and
some hypothesis for its reduction are presented. These reduced models enable to develop the
control laws and the stabilization of the aerodynamic speed, altitude and heading of the airship.
A technique of dynamical decoupling is considered in order to have a more stable altitude when
the airship turns. Tests in simulation were made.
[17] Benjovengo, Paiva, and Bueno presents the research developments for the global
nonlinear control of an autonomous airship, covering the full flight envelope from hovering to

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aerodynamic flight on May 2009. It focuses on the longitudinal control of the airship using two
different Sliding Mode control techniques that are the classical sliding mode and the unit vector
approach. The design methodologies for both techniques are presented along with some
representative simulation results.
[18] Saiki, Fukai, Urakubo, and Kohno proposes a control design method for automatic
hovering of outdoor blimp robots under strong wind by using path following approach on
September 2010. The method consists of inverse optimal path following control in horizontal
plane and PID control for altitude and pitching motion of the blimp in longitudinal plane. Some
simulations and experiments for an outdoor blimp whose length is 12m are performed to
confirm the usefulness of the proposed method.
[19] Yang, Zheng, and Wu studies an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control (AFSMC)
approach is proposed for a robotic airship on April 2012. First, the mathematical model of an
airship is derived in the form of a nonlinear control system. Second, an AFSMC approach is
proposed to design the attitude control system of airship, and the global stability of the closedloop system is proved by using the Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, simulation results
verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control approach in the presence of
model uncertainties and external disturbances.
[20] Azinheira, Moutinho, Paiva, and Bueno provides a tutorial view on airship pathtracking under wind disturbances on January 2016. It addresses the relevant aspects towards
this objective, namely the airship modelling, the dynamics analysis over the flight envelope,
and the step-by-step design of a gain-scheduling control. The required parts to build a proper
airship simulator are given: airship dynamics and actuation, and wind disturbances. A pathtracking gain-scheduling controller is designed and its performance and robustness evaluated
in the simulation environment described for a complete airship mission consisting of vertical

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takeoff and landing, cruise flight and ground-hover, under realistic wind disturbances.
Throughout the paper, considerations are done regarding the airship behavior and limitations,
as well as what can be accomplished and how.

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