Full-state modeling and nonlinear control of balloon supported unmanned aerial vehicle

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide the full-state mathematical model and devise a nonlinear controller for a balloon-supported unmanned aerial vehicle (BUAV). Design/methodology/approach Newtonian mechanics is used to establish the nonlinear mathematical model of the proposed vehicle assembly which incorporates the dynamics of both balloon and quadrotor UAV. A controllable form of the nine degrees of freedom model is derived. Backstepping control is designed for the proposed model and simulations are performed to assess the tracking performance of the proposed control. Findings The results show that the proposed methodology works well for smooth trajectories in presence of wind gusts. Moreover, the final mathematical model is affine and various nonlinear control techniques can be used in the future for improved system performance. Originality/value Multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (MUAVs) are equipped with controllers but are constrained by smaller flight endurance and payload carrying capability. On the contrary, lighter than air (LTA) aerial vehicles have longer flight times but have poor control performance for outdoor operations. One of the solutions to achieve better flight endurance and payload carrying capability is to augment the LTA balloon to MUAV. The novelty of this research lies in full-order mathematical modeling along with transformation to controllable form for the BUAV assembly.