On the Development of a Scalable 8-DoF Model for a Generic Parafoil-Payload Delivery System

The paper presents an initial move to develop a scalable high-degree-of-freedom model of the parafoil-payload system. The intention is to develop the tool capable of: i) determining basic system’s geometry parameters by observing the video data of the real descend, ii) readjusting the nominal aerodynamic and control coefficients incorporated into the well-established equations of motions, and iii) performing model identification to tune numerous relative variables to achieve the best fit with the real drop data if available. Since in the certain way such a tool would represent some kind of generalization of the modeling efforts undertaken so far, the present paper starts from a comprehensive review of publications devoted to the modeling of parafoil-payload systems. The paper then briefly addressed the current stage of the development of a scalable model. In anticipation of real drop data to validate the approach paper ends with conclusions. I