Adaptive Airdrop Release Point Calculation Using UV LIDAR
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current airdrop operations require multiple passes over the intended landing area to measure wind and recalculate the computed airdrop release point (CARP), increasing vulnerability and operation time, and using outdated dropsonde data introduces significant error.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive airdrop system with a wind measurement system, such as UV LIDAR, continuously samples atmospheric data to iteratively calculate a precision CARP, ensuring accurate and timely release of payloads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If multiple passes are conducted to measure wind and recalculate CARP, then measurement precision is improved, but operation time increases and vulnerability increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary wind measurements and CARP calculations before the actual airdrop operation. By pre-measuring wind conditions and pre-calculating the release point, the system eliminates the need for multiple measurement passes during the critical airdrop window, significantly reducing operation time while maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical dropsonde deployment systems with an optical/LIDAR-based wind measurement system. This substitution allows for non-contact, real-time wind profile measurements without requiring physical instrument deployment, thereby reducing operation time and eliminating the need for multiple passes.
2Measurement precision
If multiple passes are conducted to measure wind and recalculate CARP, then measurement precision is improved, but vulnerability to enemy aircraft and ground forces increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces physical dropsonde deployment with remote LIDAR-based wind measurement. This eliminates the need for aircraft to slow down, change configuration, or release physical instruments that could be detected by enemy radar or visual observation, thereby maintaining measurement precision while significantly reducing vulnerability to enemy aircraft and ground forces.
3Device complexity
If outdated dropsonde data is used for CARP calculation, then operation complexity is reduced, but CARP accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical system of dropsonde deployment, retrieval, and data processing with a direct LIDAR-based wind measurement system. This provides real-time, continuous wind profile data without the complexity of physical instrument deployment, ensuring high CARP accuracy while actually simplifying the overall data collection process.
Solution Approach 2:
The LIDAR system provides continuous wind measurement capability throughout the flight, replacing the discrete, intermittent data collection from dropsondes. This continuous measurement ensures that the most current wind data is always available for CARP calculation, maintaining high accuracy without the complexity of managing multiple discrete measurement events.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures high-probability accurate delivery of payloads to the intended target by reducing uncertainty and minimizing detection risk through real-time adaptive sampling and iterative CARP calculation.
Implementation Method 1
an ultraviolet LIDAR (UV LIDAR) system 202
Implementation Method 2
The UV LIDAR system 202 makes these measurements without reliance on atmospheric particulates
Data Source
AI summary
An adaptive airdrop system for an aircraft includes a wind measurement system and a processing system. The wind measurement system measures at least atmospheric wind velocity and supplies wind velocity data representative thereof. The processing system is configured to adaptively sample the wind velocity data, implement a computer aided release point (CARP) model, and iteratively process the adaptively sampled wind velocity data to calculate, using the CARP model, a precision release point for a payload.