An airship with a moving gondola is investigated with the goal of achieving a large pitch angle and of minimizing the total energy consumption required to goal position. The airship in this study is equipped with different actuation tools such as a moving gondola and a vectoring thrust, which can be used for various flight modes. The efficiency of the actuation methods employed is studied and compared in various flight scenarios, based on the airship’s ability to reach the desired position while consuming the least amount of energy. The nonlinear dynamic model is derived using Newton-Euler equations. Backstepping and incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion (INDI) controllers are designed to track a desired trajectory by controlling the position of the gondola and the thrust. The dynamic models are then implemented and simulated in the Matlab/Simulink to evaluate the effectiveness of the controllers in different environmental conditions. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the controllers used, and a larger pitch angle of -89o, can be reached thanks to the movement of the gondola to the front of the airship on the curved keel. The airship prototype was used for the experimental test to evaluate the pitch tracking performance of each of the controllers. The experimental results show that the prototype used can generate a -90o pitch angle, thereby improving manoeuvrability and allowing for rapid changes in altitude. The energy model is developed to evaluate and compare the energy required by the airship for ascent, cruise, and descent flights, using different actuation methods. The effectiveness of the composite control strategy is demonstrated by completing the flight mission with the least amount of energy consumed. An optimization method is then developed to find the optimum design configuration to reduce the cost function, based on energy consumption, of the different flight scenarios while always respecting the design constraints. The Heuristic technique is used to obtain the optimal flight trajectory based on the platform’s ability to complete the desired mission while minimising energy consumption. The results show that for pitch tracking, the vectored thrust has a rapid response, and the required thrust is high. Therefore, this configuration requires more energy than the moving gondola control configuration, in all cases studied. The composite configuration is found to be the most efficient method for completing the flight trajectory with the least amount of energy. The total energy consumption of the entire flight is reduced by about 17% by using the optimization algorithm to select the best actuation method for each flight mode.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/43094 |
| Date | 07 January 2022 |
| Creators | Mansur, Ali |
| Contributors | Lanteigne, Eric |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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