Autonomous parafoil guidance in high winds

Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)Guided airdrop systems lacking propulsion may be adversely affected by high winds. Strong winds encountered during Draper Laboratory flight testing prevented lightweight parafoil systems from landing accurately. This thesis introduces and compares multiple guidance strategies designed to address high wind scenarios in cases of differing wind knowledge fidelity. The algorithms presented significantly improve performance in high tailwind and shifting wind scenarios without compromising miss accuracy in standard wind conditions. This adds additional capability to parafoil guidance by substantially increasing the conditions under which accurate landings are possible