Autonomous control of parafoil and payload systems using upper surface canopy spoilers

Scheuermann, Edward J.

Title:

Autonomous control of parafoil and payload systems using upper surface canopy spoilers

dc.contributor.advisor	Costello, Mark
dc.contributor.author	Scheuermann, Edward J.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Ferri, Aldo
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Glezer, Ari
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Johnson, Eric
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Bergeron, Keith
dc.contributor.department	Mechanical Engineering
dc.date.accessioned	2015-09-21T14:25:00Z
dc.date.available	2015-09-21T14:25:00Z
dc.date.created	2015-08
dc.date.issued	2015-05-13
dc.date.submitted	August 2015
dc.date.updated	2015-09-21T14:25:00Z
dc.description.abstract	With the advent of steerable, ram air parafoil canopies, aerial payload delivery has become a viable alternative for situations involving remote or undeveloped areas, hostile environments, or otherwise inaccessible locations. Autonomously guided systems utilizing such steerable, ram air canopies are typically controlled by symmetric and asymmetric deflection of the canopy trailing edge. Although these systems have demonstrated substantial improvement in landing accuracy over similarly sized unguided systems, their low number of available control channels and limited ability to alter vehicle glide slope during flight makes them highly susceptible to atmospheric gusts and other unknown conditions near the target area. This research aims to improve landing accuracy in such adverse conditions by replacing the standard trailing edge deflection control mechanism in favor of upper surface canopy spoilers. These spoilers operate by opening several spanwise slits in the upper surface of the parafoil canopy thus forming a virtual spoiler from the stream of expelled pressurized air. In particular, estimation of steady-state vehicle flight characteristics in response to different symmetric and asymmetric spoiler openings was determined for two different small-scale test vehicles. Additionally, improvements in autonomous landing accuracy using upper surface spoilers in a combined lateral and longitudinal control scheme was investigated computationally using a high fidelity, 6-DOF dynamic model of the test vehicle and further validated in actual flight experiments with good results. Lastly, a novel in-canopy bleed air actuation system suitable for large-scale parafoil aircraft was designed, fabricated, and flight-tested. The in-canopy system consists of several small, specifically designed wireless winch actuators mounted entirely inside the parafoil canopy. Each in-canopy actuator is capable of opening one or more upper surface canopy spoilers via a unique internal rigging structure. This system demonstrates not only the applicability of bleed air spoiler control for large-scale autonomous parafoil and payload aircraft, but also provides the potential for significant savings in size, weight, and cost of the required actuation hardware for currently fielded systems.
dc.description.degree	Ph.D.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53874
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject	Airdrop systems
dc.subject	Autonomous control
dc.subject	Dynamic modeling
dc.subject	Guidance
dc.subject	Parachutes
dc.subject	Parafoils
dc.subject	Aerodynamic spoilers
dc.title	Autonomous control of parafoil and payload systems using upper surface canopy spoilers
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Dissertation
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.advisor	Costello, Mark
local.contributor.corporatename	George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication	282a8690-2c03-4982-8cac-5ea4d127072a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	c01ff908-c25f-439b-bf10-a074ed886bb7
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral