Model predictive control for path following of stratospheric airship with magnitude and rate constrains of rudder

This paper presents an effective path following control method for an under-actuated stratospheric airship with rudder constraints. Firstly, dynamic model of the stratospheric airship is described by kinematics and dynamics equations which the controller design is based on. During the movement of stratospheric airship, magnitude and rate of rudder are constrained. Then, the path following controller for the stratospheric airship with magnitude and rate constrains of rudder is designed based on the Guidance-Based Path Following (GBPF) principle and the Model Predictive Control (MPC) theory. The MPC scheme can handle constraints explicitly. Finally, the simulation results are presented to illustrate that the stratospheric airship can converge to a desired path while the inputs and input increments are less than the limits.