Nonlinear control of a buoyancy-driven airship

The control of a new kind of airship is presented. By restricting its flight to a vertical plane, the mathematical model is reduced. The simplified model is proved to be minimum phase, and a nonlinear controller based on input-output linearization is designed. Since the performance of the controller is significantly impacted by the choice of parameters, simulations of three different pole placement strategies are presented. The nonlinear controller shows better performances than a linear LQR controller when the initial condition is significantly away from the desired equilibrium.