Smart systems blimp
The Hammer Kopf is a remote controlled blimp, It is called Hammer Kopf because of the twin motors at the front of the gondola, creating a look much like that of a hammer head shark, it also has a motor at the rear which swivels left to right which is used to steer. Kopf is the German word for head the reason why German the word for head is used is because it was a German blimp, which influenced the end of the airship era, this was the Hindenburg incident.
The Hammer Kopf comprises of three motors, which are used to not only drive the ship in a linear direction, but also control the altitude through servos tilting the front motors up or down, and a servo at the rear, which swivels the rear motor to steer the ship. It uses 2 e.c.s (speed controllers) to control the rpm of the motors from the data it receives from the radio control, this allows the person controlling the ship to control its acceleration and top speed. The motors are powered by three 9v vault batteries, ideally they should be powered by a LipO battery which would be much lighter and probably last a lot longer making the blimp more efficient to run. The servos and e.s.c's draw their power form four AA batteries, which also powers the radio control receiver, again it would be ideal to power these with a LipO battery.
The reason the Hammer Kopf is an r/c blimp was because of how an early blimp project influenced us, The Blubber Bot was an automated blimp which flew at different speeds deepening on the light, it also had a crash sensor which did not work very effectively, because of the lack of control and the spasticness of the Blubber Bot we decided to go with radio control, we used a 6 channel remote system which meant that we had more then enough individual controls to control different components on the Hammer Kopf blimp, these include the two speed controllers and three servos, two of which have been hacked together to work in unison to control the altitude system.
The idea for having something that could vary the altitude at which the blimp flew also came from the earlier Blubber Bot project in which the blimp simply flew in a linear plane; this was a hassle because it meant that the weight of the components had a greater effect on how well the blimp flew. This led to the development of a system in which two micro servos rotated a spoiler like object on which the two front motors were attached. The linear flight path of the Blubber Bot also led to a steering system being developed for the Hammer Kopf.
In the end the blimp was not big enough to lift the gondola to a neutral buoyant state, this comes down to the weight of the components used in the gondola, every thing in the gondola works soundly.
PARTS
![Picture](/uploads/4/9/1/4/4914196/441332.jpg?183)
The servos will be used to turn the rear engine to steer, and turn the altitude control
![Picture](/uploads/4/9/1/4/4914196/8909306.jpg?186)
RADIO SIGNAL RECEIVER
The radio receiver will receive the signal from the remote control and give
power to the servos, it will send information from the remote control to the
speed controllers which will make the motors turn.
The radio receiver will receive the signal from the remote control and give
power to the servos, it will send information from the remote control to the
speed controllers which will make the motors turn.
![Picture](/uploads/4/9/1/4/4914196/3596363.jpg?167)
9VOLT BATTERIES AND CLIPS
There are three 9v batteries which power the 3 motors.
![Picture](/uploads/4/9/1/4/4914196/1901472.jpg?174)
E.S.C (SPEED CONTROLLER)
Interperates data sent from the radio reciever and tells the motors what speed they should turn.
MOTOR MOUNT WITH BRUSHLESS MOTORS
All three motors will be mounted on motor mounts, one motor will go at the rear to steer and to will sit on the altitude control.
All three motors will be mounted on motor mounts, one motor will go at the rear to steer and to will sit on the altitude control.
LASER CUT ACRYLIC
The acrylic will form the base of the gondola and the altitude control.
The acrylic will form the base of the gondola and the altitude control.
The blimp is made from Mylar, which is polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The material and shape that we used for our blimp doesn't have the same durability or aerodynamics of a perfect airship due to certain limitations. Air ships generally have some kind of skeleton, which gives the blimp rigidity. Taking into account the drag coefficient of the long cylinder, it seemed best as it has the ability to store large quantities of helium. The parts that need to be attached to the blimp itself are way heavier than the blubber bot which was experimented on first, thus for the blimp to take off we needed a shape that was wide on the x-axis yet stay aerodynamic. Lenticular would have been the ideal shape but the center of gravity would keep changing resulting in the blimp not being stable and it finding neutral buoyancy would be difficult to attain. Also relating our theory of keeping the blimp material weatherproof, we used the silver mirrored Mylar for it to deflect sunlight which in turn wont heat up the blimp as whole. Mylar is also known to be waterproof thus enclosing the electronic parts properly should make it capable to fly the blimp in the rain. Our blimp is also sealed well with an iron along the edges to prevent the leaking of helium.
HYDROGEN VS HELIUM
Hydrogen is first on the periodic table followed by Helium, so Hydrogen is a lighter element. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe (makes up approximately 90% of the universe). Hydrogen is very reactive, which is why it is a bad choice for blimps (ie...the Hindenburg). Helium is a significantly heavier element and is found as He2 which makes it non reactive (non flammable).
Hydrogen is approximately half the density of helium. Though one might expect it to be 1/4 the density because it has 1/4 the atomic weight, hydrogen comes in the form H2, so one molar unit of hydrogen weighs only half that of helium. One molar unit of helium is just He, because helium never forms bonds EVER.
Hydrogen Arguments. While helium is exceedingly light as compared with air, it is somewhat heavier than hydrogen. The total lift of a helium-filled dirigible is accordingly some 10% less than that of the hydrogen-filled airship. The difference does not appear important at first sight, but the total lift of the gas carries the structure, the motors and the crew. It is only the last 20% or so that is available for carrying fuel, and hence a difference of 10% in the gross lift may spell a difference of 50% in the fuel-carrying capacity. On long-distance flights this difference is vital.
Nor is the danger of fire totally eliminated with the use of helium; the gas-tanks and the fuel system generally are still vulnerable. But when a ship is properly designed and carefully handled, the danger of fire is comparatively small, even with hydrogen.
Another strong argument of hydrogen partisans is the fact that owing to the minute quantities of helium found in the natural gas at its source, an extremely expensive system of fractional distillation is necessary and the cost will always remain excessive.
HYDROGEN VS HELIUM
Hydrogen is first on the periodic table followed by Helium, so Hydrogen is a lighter element. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe (makes up approximately 90% of the universe). Hydrogen is very reactive, which is why it is a bad choice for blimps (ie...the Hindenburg). Helium is a significantly heavier element and is found as He2 which makes it non reactive (non flammable).
Hydrogen is approximately half the density of helium. Though one might expect it to be 1/4 the density because it has 1/4 the atomic weight, hydrogen comes in the form H2, so one molar unit of hydrogen weighs only half that of helium. One molar unit of helium is just He, because helium never forms bonds EVER.
Hydrogen Arguments. While helium is exceedingly light as compared with air, it is somewhat heavier than hydrogen. The total lift of a helium-filled dirigible is accordingly some 10% less than that of the hydrogen-filled airship. The difference does not appear important at first sight, but the total lift of the gas carries the structure, the motors and the crew. It is only the last 20% or so that is available for carrying fuel, and hence a difference of 10% in the gross lift may spell a difference of 50% in the fuel-carrying capacity. On long-distance flights this difference is vital.
Nor is the danger of fire totally eliminated with the use of helium; the gas-tanks and the fuel system generally are still vulnerable. But when a ship is properly designed and carefully handled, the danger of fire is comparatively small, even with hydrogen.
Another strong argument of hydrogen partisans is the fact that owing to the minute quantities of helium found in the natural gas at its source, an extremely expensive system of fractional distillation is necessary and the cost will always remain excessive.
CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT
My role in this project was to construct, conceptualize and find supporting material for each step. These included the making of the hammer kopf and contribute my knowledge of aero modeling, which I have gained in the past. The research and developing further on the blubber bot made it easier for me personally as I could clearly see what upgrades/ changes it needed. Starting from scratch was another pleasure itself as we had the freedom to design our own mechanism rather than have it out of a box.
The blubber bot was a success when it came to flight but not so much for control. This was one key area we came to terms with at once. Thus doing some heavy research on arduino control and radio control we finally settled on the later. Working with my group member, Peter was good as we gelled well and had the similar train of thought. We always came up with counter solutions to each others theory, thus enabling us to more forward conceptually.
We came up with idea to explore and construct a blimp that would be operated using remote control. Problems that arose with the blubber bot was that other than no control, it was way too buoyant and due to this reason it being an automated machine did not make much sense. So the idea with the Hammer Kopf was to implement some kind of altitude control, after conceptualizing several ideas, we came up with the idea of mounting the motors on something similar to that of a car spoiler but attach the bottom of the spoiler on to servos which are mounted to the main body of the gondola, so when the servos rotated it changed the angle of the spoiler, so depending in which direction the servos rotated it would make the motors face up, down or stay facing forwards if not rotated.
Many problems rose due to miscalculations of the blimp size, availability of material and the weight of the gondola itself. Another problem that we faced was that the lighter components were way too expensive even for a small scale project like ours. All components of gondola work at the moment only flight due to the weight of the gondola seems unlikely. We technically need a bigger blimp for successful flight as the gondola weighs 900grams.
The mechanism in itself is a success as we have got the servos, motors, E.S.C etc working in well co-operative manner. Making the blimp itself also gave me the opportunity to research into different materials/ fabrics used for flight these days. Our inspiration was taken from Charles F. Ritchels airship which in turn forced me to look greatly into practical and technical problems that arise when making a personalized airship for transportation (eg. Airship storage and wind drag coefficients).
All in all it was a very interesting, well collaborated, productive and reward projects that I have been involved with over the three years that I have spent in BCT.
- Rishabh Khatter (BCT YR 3)
The blubber bot was a success when it came to flight but not so much for control. This was one key area we came to terms with at once. Thus doing some heavy research on arduino control and radio control we finally settled on the later. Working with my group member, Peter was good as we gelled well and had the similar train of thought. We always came up with counter solutions to each others theory, thus enabling us to more forward conceptually.
We came up with idea to explore and construct a blimp that would be operated using remote control. Problems that arose with the blubber bot was that other than no control, it was way too buoyant and due to this reason it being an automated machine did not make much sense. So the idea with the Hammer Kopf was to implement some kind of altitude control, after conceptualizing several ideas, we came up with the idea of mounting the motors on something similar to that of a car spoiler but attach the bottom of the spoiler on to servos which are mounted to the main body of the gondola, so when the servos rotated it changed the angle of the spoiler, so depending in which direction the servos rotated it would make the motors face up, down or stay facing forwards if not rotated.
Many problems rose due to miscalculations of the blimp size, availability of material and the weight of the gondola itself. Another problem that we faced was that the lighter components were way too expensive even for a small scale project like ours. All components of gondola work at the moment only flight due to the weight of the gondola seems unlikely. We technically need a bigger blimp for successful flight as the gondola weighs 900grams.
The mechanism in itself is a success as we have got the servos, motors, E.S.C etc working in well co-operative manner. Making the blimp itself also gave me the opportunity to research into different materials/ fabrics used for flight these days. Our inspiration was taken from Charles F. Ritchels airship which in turn forced me to look greatly into practical and technical problems that arise when making a personalized airship for transportation (eg. Airship storage and wind drag coefficients).
All in all it was a very interesting, well collaborated, productive and reward projects that I have been involved with over the three years that I have spent in BCT.
- Rishabh Khatter (BCT YR 3)