AERODYNAMIC PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR CONTROLLED PARACHUTES

An extended Kalman filter algorithm implementation is used to estimate the aerodynamic, wind, mass property and measurement errors for controlled low-glide parachutes. This implementation incorporates two new approaches: 1) an alternate attitude error model formulation to overcome mathematical singularities associated with vertical flight, and 2) apparent mass characteristics used to describe a parachute’s unsteady aerodynamic characteristics. Results based on simulated data show that aerodynamic characteristics and winds can be estimated separately from the apparent mass coefficients.