Autonomous Airdrop System Using Small-Scale Parafoil

Airdrop systems are mainly employed for cargo delivery at unreachable locations in ground. Accuracy and survivability are the main concerns for a payload drop. Generally wind will be the main disturbance affecting precise delivery. A small-scale parafoil model is developed which gives considerable properties of an actual parafoil. Wind shear model is used for creating wind profile in simulation. Asymmetrical control inputs are generated by use of PID controller and payload survivability is improved by use of symmetrical inputs during landing. The statistical results of 1000 simulated landings shows 50% CEP as 8.077m with standard deviation of 7.42m.