Pitch Tracking for an Airship with Moving Gondola Using Backstepping Control

摘要

This paper presented a backstepping approach for trajectory tracking control of an airship using a moving gondola as a control input. The gondola and thrusters can travel from the mid-rear of helium envelop to the front via a curved rail thereby altering the location of the center of gravity (CG) with respect to the center of volume (CV). The dynamic equations of airship is derived using the Newton- Euler method, and the model was implemented and simulated in Matlab/Simulink to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed controller for tracking pitch trajectories in the presence of uncertainty and wind disturbances. The global asymptotically stability is proved by Lyapunov stability analysis. The results show the effectiveness of the CG control for pitch and altitude tracking.