Design of a multi-vectored thrust aerostat with a reconfigurable control system

This paper presents an aerostat developed in the shape of an ellipsoid, which is a cross between a ball and a water droplet. This aerostat is equipped with four vectored thrusters. Its coefficient of forward drag is smaller than that of the spherical aerostat, and its lift efficiency is higher than that of the conventional airship. To allocate control among the multi-vectored thrusters, a control system based on pseudo-inverse dynamics is designed. A reconfiguration strategy is also proposed to reallocate actuators in case of control actuator failure. Three diagonal weight matrices are combined to represent all possible failure situations occurred on vectored thruster, they make the reconfigurable controller more general. Based on simulation results under different fault situations, the reconfigurable control system performs more effectively than a normal control system in cases of actuator failure, even when more than one actuator fails. Reconfigurable ability of controller also validated in real flight experiment.