Graphical User Interface
The Interface
The GUI (graphical user interface) to control the blimp is simple and intuitive. It is split into two primary sections: user control and sensor readings. The GUI was built in Java using the Swing UI framework to create controls and display information. Using Swing allowed for quick code development and event driven programming that cleanly separates data processing and transmission form display (i.e. the model/view/controller design pattern).
The user controls allow for basic toggles of features such as automatic altitude hold and the ability to enable/disable the blimp’s internal control loop. In addition, it provides the ability to manually query all five of the blimps infrared sensors. Below the toggles are three sliders the control the motors. Operation is very straight forward; the further away the slider is from “Stop” the fast the motor goes in specified direction.
The sensor readout provides a simple output of all received sensor readings. Currently, the panel is able to display compass and infrared sensor readings along with the current batter voltage. However, at the time of writing the blimp was only able to poll the infrared sensors and would not respond to queries for the compass or battery voltage.