A Low-Cost, Open-Source, Robotic Airship for Education and Research

Miniature indoor robotic airship platforms offer high mobility, safety, and extended flight times. This paper focuses on the feasibility, design, development, and evaluation of such a platform for robotics education and research. Selected commercially available envelope materials were considered and tested in terms of their helium retention capability and mechanical properties. The obtained envelope properties were used in a feasibility study, demonstrating that indoor airships are environmentally and financially viable, given an appropriate material choice. The platform's mechanical design was studied in terms of gondola placement and rotor angle positioning, resulting in an unconventional, asymmetric arrangement. The developed system was finally tested in a simple path following experiment for proof-of-concept purposes, proving its efficiency in attaining the desired heading and altitude configuration. The proposed robotic airship platform can be used for a variety of education and research oriented applications. Its design is open-source, facilitating replication by others.