Pitch and Altitude Control of an Unmanned Airship with Sliding Gondola

Abstract

An unmanned airship has an ability of heavy lifting capabilities, low environmental footprint, and long endurance, however, the unmanned airships are faced challenges linked to the maneuverability during landing and the reliability of control. In this thesis, the six degrees of freedom equations of motion of a miniature unmanned airship with a sliding gondola have been derived. Then the model was implemented and simulated in the Matlab/Simulink. The wind disturbance was also implemented in the model. The model was then trimmed and linearized in to obtain pitch and altitude PID controllers using the gondola position as an input. Both controllers were simulated with different reference inputs and disturbances. The experimental platform, hardware, sensors and graphical user interface of the ground station were described. Then, experimental flight tests were performed to evaluate the pitch controller.