Trajectory tracking control for underactuated stratospheric airship

Stratospheric airship is a new kind of aerospace system which has attracted worldwide developing interests for its broad application prospects. Based on the trajectory linearization control (TLC) theory, a novel trajectory tracking control method for an underactuated stratospheric airship is presented in this paper. Firstly, the TLC theory is described sketchily, and the dynamic model of the stratospheric airship is introduced with kinematics and dynamics equations. Then, the trajectory tracking control strategy is deduced in detail. The designed control system possesses a cascaded structure which consists of desired attitude calculation, position control loop and attitude control loop. Two sub-loops are designed for the position and attitude control loops, respectively, including the kinematics control loop and dynamics control loop. Stability analysis shows that the controlled closed-loop system is exponentially stable. Finally, simulation results for the stratospheric airship to track typical trajectories are illustrated to verify effectiveness of the proposed approach.

► We present a nonlinear trajectory tracking control method for stratospheric airship.
► Cascaded structure avoids the difficulty of six-DOF dynamics inversion.
► The method achieves different flight modes with invariable controller parameters.
► Controlled closed-loop system is proved to be exponentially stable.
► Simulations show that the method has an excellent performance