Wind Assessment for Aerial Payload Delivery Systems Using GPS and IMU Sensors

Abstract

Numerous organizations within the Department of Defense have requested research and development efforts to create a lightweight Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) capable of covertly distributing items to austere or contested locations. This mission has many critical challenges, with meteorological estimation near the top of the list due to a ram-air parachute's high susceptibility to environmental forces. Computer-based modeling of environmental conditions is extremely difficult due to the chaotic and often unpredictable interactions of environmental factors and the surrounding topography, so bench tests, flight tests, and the post processing of the resultant test data were the research methods used in development of this thesis. Ultimately, this thesis presents two models for winds aloft prediction capable of presenting an increased fidelity solution. Both methods were field tested and could be used in JPADS guidance, navigation, and control algorithms.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1029880

Entities

People

  • Matthew D. O'brian

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Bench Tests
  • Control Systems
  • Flight Paths
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Guidance
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Reliability
  • Second World War
  • Three Dimensional
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles

Readers

  • Aerial Delivery - Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Inertial Navigation Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Space