Motion Generation on Trim Trajectories for an Autonomous Underactuated Airship

A blimp is a small airship that has no metal framework and collapses when deflated. In the first part of this paper, dynamic modeling of small autonomous non rigid airships is presented, using the Newton-Euler approach. This study discusses the motion in 6 degrees of freedom since 6 independent coordinates are necessary to determine the position and orientation of this vehicle. Euler angles are used in the formulation of this model. In the second part of the paper, path planning is introduced. Motion generation for trim trajectories is presented. This motion generation takes into account the dynamic model presented in the first part. Key-words : Autonomous Airship, Trajectory planning, Underactuated systems, Nonholonomic systems