Accurate Homing of Parafoil Delivery Systems Based Glide-Ratio Control

In this article, the proposed method first evaluates the effects on aerodynamic force caused by flight velocity and angular velocity of the parafoil delivery system and performs an active disturbance rejection control in the horizontal direction. Moreover, a glide-ratio controller is designed based on the characteristics of the symmetrical flap deflection. For resisting its disturbance, a feedforward compensation unit is designed with the glide-ratio controller. The performance is effectively validated through hardware-in-the-loop simulation.

I. Introduction

The parafoil delivery system is a special kind of unmanned aerial vehicles. This system consists of a parafoil and a payload. It is widely used in both the military and civilian field, such as the airdropping of supplies for humanitarian aid, aircraft recovery, and so on [1]–[4]. The parafoil system offers the advantages of low velocity, flight stability, load capacity, and maneuverability [5], [6]. In the application of this system, homing is its most important mission, in which the payload must be delivered to the target position accurately. In recent years, with the development of GPS and other high-quality electronic devices, it is possible to achieve accurate homing control for a parafoil delivery system.