Modeling and Experimental Efforts towards Robust Low-Cost Cruciform Canopy Control

摘要

Over the years, precision guided cargo airdrop has taken many forms with most attempting to optimize payload delivery accuracy over all other variables. More recent developments have placed system cost and the ability to perform accurately in highly vertical drop environments as higher priorities, necessitating a departure from more traditional parafoil based vehicles. This work describes the numerical and experimental examination of a cruciform based cargo payload system in the context of modern operational considerations. The design process is holistic, making extensive use of a two-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model to characterize steady flight and coupling this with collection and analysis of tradition live drop test data to understand deployment dynamics and responses to environmental conditions. This has resulted in a system that has the potential to leverage existing concepts of operation and flight planning tools while extending operational and logistics support in real-world mission scenarios.