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Autonomous Blimp Major Qualifying Project Report

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Autonomous Blimp Major Qualifying Project Report Project ID: FJL-BLMP Project ID: GTH-AAA6 Towards the Realization of an Autonomous Blimp Major Qualifying Project Report Submitted to the Faculty Of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science by Jeremy Colon (CS) Melinda Race (ECE) Darius Toussi (ECE) Richard Walker (ECE) Date Submitted: April 25, 2013 Project Advisors: George Heineman Fred Looft 0 Abstract This project continues an MQP from the 2011-12 academic year: Development of an Autonomous Blimp. The objective of our project was to modify the existing design by implementing autonomous flight capability using an Android phone, a power system capable of tracking energy usage, and a camera mission module for aerial photography. Through testing and flight tests, we demonstrated that we successfully implemented non-optimized autonomous flight, portions of the power system design, and a camera mission module. i Acknowledgements We would like to thank our advisors Professor George Heineman and Professor Fred Looft for their continued support throughout this project. We would also like to thank the following individuals for their help with this project: Thomas Angelotti Danielle Beaulieu Torbjorn Bergstrom Professor Stephen Bitar Adam Blumenau Nicholas DeMarinis Cathy Emmerton Richard Gammon Mitchell Monserrate Patrick Morrison Earl Ziegler ii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................ vii Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................... x 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project Statement.............................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 1 2 Background ............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Autonomous Blimp Project Goals ................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Outdoor Operation .................................................................................................... 3 2.1.2 Autonomous Operation ............................................................................................. 3 2.1.3 Performing Multiple Roles ....................................................................................... 4 2.1.4 Endurance Flights ..................................................................................................... 4 2.1.5 Two-Way Communication with a Base Station........................................................ 4 2.1.6 System Requirements................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Project Accomplishments ................................................................................................. 5 2.2.1 Gondola ..................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Electronics................................................................................................................. 7 2.2.3 Software .................................................................................................................... 7 2.2.4 Mission Modules ....................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Problems ........................................................................................................................... 9 2.3.1 Hardware Failures ..................................................................................................... 9 2.3.2 Drive and Power System Efficiency ....................................................................... 10 2.3.3 Documentation and Organization ........................................................................... 10 2.3.4 Time Constraints ..................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 12 3 Detailed Project Proposal ...................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Hardware for Autonomous Flight .................................................................................. 13 3.2 Power System ................................................................................................................. 14 3.3 Mission Modules ............................................................................................................ 15 3.4 Requirements .................................................................................................................. 16 3.4.1 Flight Requirements ................................................................................................ 16 3.4.2 Power System Requirements .................................................................................. 16 3.4.3 Mission Modules ..................................................................................................... 17 3.4.4 Requirement Chart .................................................................................................. 18 3.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 18 4 System Architecture .............................................................................................................. 19 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 19 4.2 High Level Systems ....................................................................................................... 19 4.3 Detailed Sub-Systems .................................................................................................... 19 4.3.1 Power Supply .......................................................................................................... 20 4.3.2 Sensors .................................................................................................................... 20 4.3.3 Power Display Unit ................................................................................................. 21 4.3.4 Drive System ........................................................................................................... 21 iii 4.3.5 Control System........................................................................................................ 21 4.3.6 Manual Override ..................................................................................................... 22 4.3.7 Mission Module ...................................................................................................... 22 4.3.8 Base Station ............................................................................................................ 22 4.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 22 5 Control System...................................................................................................................... 23 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 23 5.2 System Design ................................................................................................................ 23 5.2.1 System Needs .......................................................................................................... 24 5.2.2 System Requirements.............................................................................................. 26 5.3 System Architecture and Trade Studies ......................................................................... 28 5.4 Final System Design....................................................................................................... 31 5.5 Detailed System Design ................................................................................................. 32 5.5.1 Detailed System Design Architecture ..................................................................... 33 5.5.2 Detailed Manual Override System .......................................................................... 35 5.6 Testing and Results ........................................................................................................ 39 5.6.1 Testing and Results ................................................................................................. 39 5.6.2 Tests and Results for PWM Signals Generated by Android
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