Abstract

The Recovery Guidance System is a subproject of Iowa State Universities’ High Altitude Ballooning Experiments in Technology (HABET) group. The system is designed to avoid common hazards during descent including large area objects such as populated areas and roadways, as well as smaller objects such as trees in a field, with an accuracy within tens of meters. RGS provides guidance for the payload using a two servo system aboard the payload in conjunction with GPS and radio communication. Navigation will be handled by a mixture of GPS and video analysis. For guidance, only longitudinal and directional dynamics of the payload-parafoil system will be considered in the dynamic modeling of the system. The main costs of implementation will come from the microprocessor, servos, and parafoil used within the system. With an initial prototype built research will continue with field testing and simulations to most accurately model the parafoil dynamics.

How to Cite:

Velasquez, C. & Benedict, Z., (2015) “Parafoil Recovery of a High Altitude Balloon Payload”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2015(1). doi: https://doi.org//ahac.8169