The development, optimisation and testing of an unmanned parafoil launch system

Parafoils have been used in various aerospace, military and sport applications to return both personnel and payloads safely to the ground. Deflection of the trailing edge flaps by means of control lines allows for turn rates of up to 60° per second, which provides superior controllability when compared to conventional round parachutes. This steering ability has led to the development of autonomous control systems that are able to navigate a payload to land in close proximity to a designated landing site. In order to develop an autonomous navigation system a suitable dynamic model of the parafoil with suspended payload is required to determine the parameters and characteristics of the system in free flight. Flexible ram-air inflated parafoils display high sensitivity to atmospheric disturbances which complicates the comparison of measured flight-dynamic data to theoretical models in an open air free flight test. In order to improve the quality of results in studying the flight dynamics of an unmanned parafoil system in free flight, controlled conditions and a repeatable flight path are required to perform data analysis for various trim configurations. This leads to the requirement of a launching system that ensures consistent inflation of the canopy and repeatable launch velocities for various canopy and payload configurations.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Norton, William Alexander

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Redelinghuys, Christiaan

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5496

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5496