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Aspects Of Control For A Parafoil And Payload System, Nathan Slegers, Mark Costello

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

A parafoil controlled by parafoil brake deflection offers a lightweight and space-efficient control mechanism for autonomous placement of air-dropped payloads to specified ground coordinates. The work reported here investigates control issues for a parafoil and payload system with left and right parafoil brakes used as the control mechanism. It is shown that parafoil and payload systems can exhibit two basic modes of lateral control, namely,roll and skid steering. These two modes of lateral steering generate lateral response in opposite directions. For example, a roll steer configuration turns left when the right parafoil brake is activated, whereas a skid steer configuration …