Robust three-dimensional path-following control for an under-actuated stratospheric airship

This paper proposes a robust three-dimensional (3-D) path-following controller for an under-actuated stratospheric airship in the presence of uncertainties. The resultant control system exhibits an inner-outer loop control structure. In the outer control loop, the path-following error dynamics is constructed in a moving Serret-Frenet frame and a new guidance law with the sideslip and attack angle compensation is designed, which decreases the path-following steady-state error. In the inner control loop, a disturbance observer based backstepping control law is proposed to achieve the desired dynamic behavior on the path. Furthermore, a new velocity tracking control strategy is developed which aligns the resultant velocity tangent to the path. Finally, numerical simulation results are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.