Lighter-Than-Air Autonomy

Goals

This project will develop autonomous lighter-than-air vehicles and new behaviors for those vehicles that allow them to play aerial soccer against other teams. This project will develop a lighter-than-air autonomous vehicle that can identify specific objects, such as vehicles from opposing teams (to defend against) and buoyant game balls that must be captured in a net suspended beneath the autonomous vehicle. Then the vehicle must identify a goal, navigate toward it and align with it to score a goal. This project will use computer vision, control theory, and both mechanical and electrical design to accomplish its objectives.

Issues Involved or Addressed

This project will develop vehicles for an event called Battle Blimps: Defend the Republic that involves teams from across the country that compete in a game of aerial soccer using autonomous blimps. This event presents the challenge of solving problems in autonomous vehicle design, communication, and the interaction between autonomous systems. These challenges are of fundamental importance because solutions can be applied to real-world uses of similar autonomous vehicles, such as search and rescue.

The core objective of this project is to develop a lighter-than-air autonomous vehicle capable of independently identifying specific objects, such as other floating balloons, and then moving to capture them. “Capturing” the object involves catching a neutrally buoyant balloon in a net suspended beneath the autonomous vehicle. Once the balloon is captured, the vehicle needs to identify a goal, then navigate toward it and align with it to score a goal. To accomplish this, we will use helium-filled vehicles attached to a carbon fiber frame, which holds a PCB and a microcontroller to control the sensors and actuators of the vehicle. A stereo camera will be used for computer vision, while brushless DC motors will control position and orientation.

The design framework for this project is guided by the competition’s official rulebook, which sets out the requirements for scoring points and specific competition rules. Teams have the freedom to create their own design, allowing for creative solutions in blimp engineering. For example, two main design strategies have emerged: balloon capture blimps, focused on scoring points, and attack blimps, aimed at disrupting other teams. The Control, Optimization, and Robotics Engineering (CORE) Lab at Georgia Tech has participated in these competitions before, which provides a solid foundation for successful autonomous blimp designs.

A significant challenge in this project is designing vehicles that are neutrally buoyant and float in the air. This limits the weight we can add to the blimps, requiring us to choose lightweight hardware and ensure that software can run efficiently on minimal devices. These design choices also require careful consideration of the number and type of devices and sensors we attach to the blimps, striking a balance between software processing power and the need for additional devices that provide new information. Simultaneously, the blimps must be capable of moving quickly and precisely through the air on their own. The open nature of the competition allows for creative freedom in design.