A control system development environment for AURORA's semi-autonomous robotic airship

Development of reliable control systems for semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles require the use of extensive simulation data provided by an accurate six-degrees-of-freedom dynamic model. In this article we describe a Simulink-based control system development environment for Project AURORA's unmanned robotic airship, as well as the control algorithms and supervisory level of AURORA's control system. A complete take-off to landing mission illustrates the utilization of this environment.