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Balloons and Airships
Published in James DeLaurier, Aircraft Design Concepts, 2022
Blimps are also known as non-rigid airships because the main envelope is an inflatable structure like that for aerostats. However, the fins are typically a rigid structure. Another difference is the structure attached to the bottom that contains the pilot, payload, engines, etc. This is called the gondola.
Blimps in Agricultural Crop Production: A Recent Initiative
Published in K. R. Krishna, Aerial Robotics in Agriculture, 2021
This chapter focuses on airships that are colloquially called ‘Blimps’ and ‘Zeppelins.’ Blimps are the non-rigid airships inflated with lighter-than-air gas. A blimp collapses if deflated. Zeppelins are lighter-than-air aircrafts provided with a rigid aluminum or wooden framework. Let us begin with history of the words ‘Blimp’ and ‘Zeppelin,’ their etymology and how the terms were coined. Origin of the word blimp is related to military usage. Initially, lighter-than-air airships were designated as type A-Limp (‘Limp Bags’). A second version of airships were designated type-B-Limp. For short they were called ‘B-limp or Blimp.’ There are a couple of more suggestions about the derivation of the word ‘blimp.’ It seems Commander of the Capelle-Ferne Airship Station, R. N. Cunningham went inspecting airships in 1915. The airship produced a sound ‘blimp’ whenever he flipped his fingers on the body of the ship. Hence, they gave a nickname to non-rigid airships as ‘blimps’ in 1915. Next, it seems anti-submarine airships were first called as ‘blimps,’ during 1915. The Oxford Dictionary lists the word ‘Blimp.’ It is explained as an airship that is non-rigid and is inflated with lighter-than-air gas (History Forum, 2018; Editor, 2018a; Vaeth, 1992). The rigid airships filled with lighter-than-air gas is known as ‘Zeppelin.’ Zeppelin is a word coined sometime in 1930s. It is derived from its inventor, Ferdinand Zeppelin.
Indoor human face following with environmental fisheye cameras and blimp
Published in Advanced Robotics, 2020
Veerachart Srisamosorn, Noriaki Kuwahara, Atsushi Yamashita, Taiki Ogata, Shouhei Shirafuji, Jun Ota
Blimp is an alternative type of UAVs. With an envelope of lighter-than-air (LTA) gas, commonly Helium, blimps can stay aloft without external force. Therefore, blimps require less energy only for motion generation, compared with multirotors, which need continuous thrusts to stay airborne, and increasing the battery capacity would result in more payload and more required power. Considering indoor use, especially with human–robot co-existence, this is desirable as less noise is generated and the risk from the propellers can be reduced. The envelope can also save the blimp from falling in case of motor or propeller malfunction, which could cause injuries if it were a multirotor. Blimp's appearance is also friendlier to people compared to multirotors and therefore it is more comfortable to coexist, as discussed in [5]. These benefits also come with some drawback in larger size and slower dynamics, making it harder to control.