Fuzzy-based Climb of an Ecological Montgolfier for Large Agricultural Lands’ Supervision

To inspect the large agricultural lands, we propose an autonomous hot-air balloon with an ecological design, able to circumvent the large cultivation areas, in particular the olive trees in the region of Sfax which present a burden for the farmers to control them constantly. Habitually, growers and cultivators use cars and trucks either to examine trees and harvest, or to follow thieves. This inspection conduct seems to be slow, vague and energy-intensive in fuel to become a serious source of pollution. Moreover, it gives a limited view between trees. From these troublesome worries, and the pressing need of a rapid and performant solution, an ecological drone based on a hot-air balloon and photovoltaic panels is developed to resolve the major problem of large agriculture grounds. Therefore, this paper is dedicated to establishment of an autonomous Montgolfier with a detailed description of its different features. Thermodynamic and aerodynamic laws are developed to a mathematical model used in the control process. To analyze the system performances, an open-loop numerical simulation is initially carried out with an on/off relay control applied to the heater temperature. Then, a feedback control is drawn with a PID to reach a desired altitude. Finally, the PID is replaced by a Sugeno-like fuzzy controller to enhance the balloon performances in a climb phase. The paper is ended with a conclusion and next work.