Attitude control allocation strategy of high altitude airship based on synthetic performance optimization

This paper presents a method for solving the attitude control problem of high altitude airship (HAA) with aerodynamic fin and vectored thruster control. The algorithm is based on the synthetic optimization of dynamic performance and energy consumption of airship. Firstly, according to the system overall configuration, the dynamic model of HAA was established and the HAA linearized model of longitudinal plane motion was obtained. Secondly, using the classic PID control theory, the HAA attitude control system was designed. Thirdly, through analyzing the dynamic performance of airship with fin or vectored thruster control, the synthetic performance index function with different weighting functions was determined. By means of optimizing the obtained performance index function, the attitude control of high altitude airship with good dynamic performance and low energy consumption was achieved. Finally, attitude control allocation strategy was designed for the airship station keeping at an altitude of 22 km. The simulation experiment proved the validity of the proposed algorithm.