Payload derived position and attitude acquisition system for parachute recovery systems

The paper addresses a current status of the development and evaluation of an autonomous payload tracking capability for determining time, state and attitude information for all types of airdrop loads. Two different alternatives are being considered. The first one relies on the data provided by multiple stationary cameras located around the drop zone. The second one relies entirely on the IMU data. The GPS data is used to validate the results in both cases. The minimum setup involves estimating payloads position, whereas the ultimate goal is to have a payload attitude estimated as well. The paper describes the developed algorithms, presents some results and ends with conclusions and suggestions for the further development.