Design and control of a spherical omnidirectional blimp

Abstract

This paper presents Skye, a novel blimp design. Skye is a helium-filled sphere of diameter 2.7m with a strong inelastic outer hull and an impermeable elastic inner hull. Four tetrahedrally-arranged actuation units (AU) are mounted on the hull for locomotion, with each AU having a thruster which can be rotated around a radial axis through the sphere center. This design provides redundant control in the six degrees of freedom of motion, and Skye is able to move omnidirectionally and to rotate around any axis. A multi-camera module is also mounted on the hull for capture of aerial imagery or live video stream according to an 'eyeball' concept -the camera module is not itself actuated, but the whole blimp is rotated in order to obtain a desired camera view.Skye is safe for use near people -the double hull minimizes the likelihood of rupture on an unwanted collision; the propellers are covered by grills to prevent accidental contact; and the blimp is near neutral buoyancy so that it makes only a light impact on contact and can be readily nudged away.The system is portable and deployable by a single operator -the electronics, AUs, and camera unit are mounted externally and are detachable from the hull during transport; operator control is via an intuitive touchpad interface.The motivating application is in entertainment robotics. Skye has a varied motion vocabulary such as swooping and bobbing, plus internal LEDs for visual effect. Computer vision enables interaction with an audience. Experimental results show dexterous maneuvers in indoor and outdoor environments, and non-dangerous impacts between the blimp and humans.

Disturbance compensation based controller for an indoor blimp robot

“…Later, they used the blimp as a platform and studied the problem of localization in indoor environment using US sensors [33], and autonomous navigation in mapped environments based on multi-stage path planning [34]. In the paper of [35], a spherical blimp capable of holonomic motion is designed. The authors of [36] designed vision-based PID controllers for blimp to track human face.…”

Three-dimensional noise and spatial mapping system with aerial blimp robot

“…The number, arrangement, and driving force directions of the propellers decide most of the restraint conditions of the UAV dynamical systems. Various arrangements of propellers in balloon-type UAVs have been proposed [16,17].…”

“…In previous investigations, various types of UAVs using a balloon have been developed. For instance, an entertainment type of UAV called Skye [16], and a natural disaster monitoring system from the air [17].…”

Extending the Lifetime of Nano-Blimps via Dynamic Motor Control

“…A nano-size blimp is a perfect candidate for long flight times because helium, a lighter-than-air gas, can provide lift and significantly reduce the energy requirements for flight. Even though helium provides lift, a perfect balance with a blimp's weight is impossible since even the smallest difference between the system's weight and its lift will result in vertical movement [8]. Even if a system is perfectly tuned at one point, a non-ideal balloon will deflate and eventually reduce the resulting lift to the point where the blimp will not be able to hover (i.e., that is able to maintain a desired altitude within a given tolerance range).…”