1 Autonomous Blimp

The goal of our senior design project was to design and implement an autonomous control system for an indoor blimp. The Coast Guard Academy Electrical and Computer Engineering section is sponsoring this effort to develop a model Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to study the development and implementation of this technology. The information gained from this study will be used to further knowledge of UAV applications in the Coast Guard. The 2005 fall semester was dedicated to developing three critical blimp systems-wireless communication, movement sensing, and manual computer control. In order to begin designing our digital controller in the spring semester, the group completed these three critical blimp systems during the fall semester. We set up an analog output card to send voltages from our computer into the blimp's remote controller circuit board, allowing users to control the blimp's movement via a computer. In order to design a digital controller we needed to measure the blimp's movement. Movement was measured using a µNav ® MNAV100CA digital sensor package which detects acceleration in the x, y, and z directions, as well as angular acceleration. All communication with the blimp was made wireless using two frequency modulated transceivers and a Bluetooth wireless transmission device. Transmitters were secured inside the blimp's gondola, and receivers attached to the computer. The group wanted to wirelessly send the blimp's acceleration in the x, y, and z directions as well as roll, pitch, and yaw from the sensor package to a computer interface. This was accomplished by implementing the sensor package in conjunction with two transceivers During the spring semester, we examined new methods to receive positioning and movement information from the blimp to supplement the sensor data. This was accomplished by implementing a heading and acoustic sensors on the blimp. Next we developed system identification equations with the help of mechanical engineering cadets. We applied these equations to create a working digital controller for the blimp at the end of the semester.