A gain-scheduling approach for airship path-tracking

Abstract

In this chapter a gain scheduled optimal controller is designed to solve the path-tracking problem of an airship. The control law is obtained from a coupled linear model of the airship that allows to control the longitudinal and lateral motions simultaneously. Due to the importance of taking into account wind effects, which are rather important due to the airship large volume, the wind is included in the kinematics, and the dynamics is expressed as function of the air velocity. Two examples are presented with the inclusion of wind, one considering a constant wind input and the other considering in addition a 3D turbulent gust, demonstrating the effectiveness of this single controller tracking a reference path over the entire flight envelope. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.