Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A platform for autonomous path control of unmanned airship

  • Technical Paper
  • Published:
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The applications of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) have been increasing and becoming part of many daily tasks in numerous organizations. As matter of fact, the use of a UAV does not mean the decreasing of operational complexities and, consequently, the costs of performing its tasks. Sometimes, this high cost is related to the dependence of well-trained operators and huge remote control facilities to operate a sophisticated UAV. This work proposes an UAV that can perform its tasks as much independent of human interaction as possible, and with a minimum connection to its mission control facilities. This independence will be achieved by embedding the mission control into the UAV. As the mission control is embedded, the UAV will have less connection issues with its control center and will be less dependable of human interaction. To prove this concept, the kinematics and dynamics of a light air vehicle (blimp) were developed; a prototype of an embedded parallel-distributed computer was constructed; and new procedures to resolve navigations and collision evasions issues were proposed. The new evasion procedures were implemented into a simulator and a new parallel/distributed program for optimal path discover was developed to be used in the cluster prototype. All tests of the evasion procedures simulator were satisfactory and the speed up tests using the embedded cluster showed the best performance of the proposed framework.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Stinton D (1998) The anatomy of the airplane. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Blackwell Science, Oxford, Reston, VA

    Google Scholar 

  2. U.S. Department of Transportation–Federal Aviation Administration (2012) Aeronautical information manual: official guide to basic flight information and ATC procedures. Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  3. U.S. Department of Transportation-Federal Aviation Administration (2008) Plane sense: general aviation information. Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  4. Defense Industry Daily staff (2012) JLENS: coordinating Cruise missile defense—and more. 30 Dec 2012. http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/jlens-coordinating-cruise-missile-defense-and-more-02921/

  5. Corporation AP (2008) Aerial products. 28 Dec 2012. http://www.aerialproducts.com/surveillance-systems/aerial-surveillance.html

  6. i Badia SB, Pyk P, Verschure PFMJ (2005) A biologically inspired flight control system for a blimp-based UAV. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, pp 3053–3059

  7. Yang Y, Wu J, Zheng W (2012) Adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control for robotic airship with model uncertainty and external disturbance. J Syst Eng Electron 23(2):250–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Dadkhah N, KorukantiVR, Kong Z, Mettler B (2009) Experimental demonstration of an online trajectory optimization scheme using approximate spatial value functions. In: Proceedings of the 48th IEEE conference on decision and control, pp 2978–2983

  9. Saiki H, Fukao T, Urakubo T, Khno T (2010) Hovering control of outdoor blimp robots based on path following. In: Control applications (CCA) 2010 IEEE international conference on, pp 2124–2129

  10. Xiaotao WU, Claude M, Yueming HU (2009) Modelling and linear control of a buoyancy-driven airship. In: Proceeding of 7th Asian control conference, ASCC 2009, pp 75–80

  11. Mettler B, Kong Z (2008) Receding horizon trajectory optimization with a finite-state value function approximation. In: Proceeding of 2008 American control conference. Seattle, Washington, pp 3810–3816

  12. González P, Burgard W, Sanz R, Fernadez JL (2009) Developing a low-cost autonomous indoor blimp. J Phys Agents 3(1):43–51

    Google Scholar 

  13. Fukao T et al (2008) Inverse optimal velocity field control of an outdoor blimp robot. In: Proceedings of the 17th world congress the international federation of automatic control. Seoul, Korea, pp 4374–4379

  14. Rottmann A, Plagemann C, Hilgers P, Burgard W (2007) Autonomous blimp control using model-free reinforcement learning in a continuous state and action space. In: Proceeding of international conference on intelligent robots and systems. IROS 2007, pp 1895–1900

  15. Gammon SM, Fryr MT, Qian C (2006) The mathematical model of the tri-turbofan airship for autonomous formation control research. In: IEEE region 5 technical, professional, and student conference, San Antonio, Texas

  16. Azinheira JR et al (2002) Visual servo control for the hovering of an outdoor robotic airship. In: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Washington, DC, pp 2787–2792

  17. Sebbane YB (2012) Lighter than air robots. Springer, Londres

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Fossen TI (1994) Guidance and control of ocean vehicles. Wiley, West Susses

    Google Scholar 

  19. Fossen TI (2002) Marine control systems, guidance, navigation, and control of ships, rigs and underwater vehicles. Marine cybernetics, Marine Cybernetics, Trondheim, Norway. ISBN 82-92356-00-2

    Google Scholar 

  20. Gemael C (1986) Introdução à geodesia geométrica. Curso de Pós-graduação em Ciências Geodésicas. Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, p 197

    Google Scholar 

  21. Bockzo R (1984) Conceitos de astronomia. Editora Edgar Blucher Ltda, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  22. da Penha JW, Ferraz AS (2009) Análise comparativa de distâncias nos seguintes modelos: esférico e elipsoidal, Revista Agroambiental—ABRIL/2009

  23. Ricardo Jorge Costa Alcácer RJC (2008) Passarola—Dirigível autónomo para operações de salvamento. Tese de Mestrado. Lisboa: Instituto Superior Técnico

  24. Technical Manual of airship aerodynamics, technical manual no. 1–320 (February, 11, 1941), War Department, Washington

  25. Reschke C, Sterling T, Ridge D, (1996) A design study of alternative network topologies for the beowulf parallel workstations. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international symposium on high performance distributed computing

  26. Becker DJ, Sterling T (1995) Beowulf: a parallel workstation for scientific computation. In: Proceedings of the international conference on parallel processing

  27. ARDUINO (2013) Arduino. 25 Mar 2013. http://www.arduino.cc/

  28. Hardkernel Co., Ltd. (2013) Products. 24 Jan 2013. http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php

  29. Ralph N (2012) Odroid-x development board brings quad-core Exynos 4 Quad processor to budding Android hackers for $129. 24 Jan 2013. http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/13/3156032/odroid-x-development-board-exynos-4412-quad

  30. Larabel M (2012) Quad-Core ODROID-X Battles NVIDIA Tegra 3, 24 Jan 2013. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=samsung_odroidx&num=1

  31. redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports—Your Universe Online (2012) Miniature quad-core computer for under $130. 24 Jan 2013. http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112656695/miniature-quad-core-computer-for-under-130/

  32. Lidar USA 3D Documentation and Beyond (15 de December de 2013). Lidar USA 3D Documentation and Beyond, http://www.lidarusa.com/page.php?cat=3. 7 Jul 2013

  33. Texas Instruments (2013) LIDAR system design for automotive/industrial/military applications, signal path designer SM. Tips, tricks, and techniques from the analog signal-path experts Texas Instruments, Literature Number: SNAA 123

  34. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2013) Navigation rules online. 24 Jan 2013. http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=navRulesContent

Download references

Acknowledgements

CNPq and CAPES support this research work.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Constantino Gonçalves Ribeiro

    Present address: UnED Itaguaí, Rodovia Mário Covas, lote J2, quadra J, Distrito Industrial de Itaguaí, Itaguaí, RJ, CEP 23810-000, Brazil

  2. Luciano Constantin Raptopoulos

    Present address: UnED Nova Iguaçu, Estrada de Adrianópolis 1317, Nova Iguaçu, RJ, CEP 26041-271, Brazil

  3. Max Suell Dutra

    Present address: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Horácio Macedo 2030, Prédio do Centro de Tecnologia, Bloco G, sala 101, Cidade Universitária, Caixa Postal 68501, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 21941-914, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coppe-UFRJ: Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Constantino Gonçalves Ribeiro & Max Suell Dutra

  2. CEFET-RJ: Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Constantino Gonçalves Ribeiro & Luciano Constantin Raptopoulos

  3. UnED Itaguaí, Rodovia Mário Covas, lote J2, quadra J, Distrito Industrial de Itaguaí, Itaguaí, RJ, CEP 23810-000, Brazil

    Max Suell Dutra

Authors
  1. Constantino Gonçalves Ribeiro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luciano Constantin Raptopoulos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Max Suell Dutra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Constantino Gonçalves Ribeiro, Luciano Constantin Raptopoulos or Max Suell Dutra.

Additional information

Technical Editor: Sadek C. Absi Alfaro.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ribeiro, C.G., Raptopoulos, L.C. & Dutra, M.S. A platform for autonomous path control of unmanned airship. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 39, 4735–4747 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-017-0891-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-017-0891-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation