SBIR/STTR Award attributes
The Army requires a capability for real-time, dynamic strain measurement in parachute canopies during flight. This capability will fill two critical needs. The first is to provide quantitative data to validate computational models and inform canopy design efforts. The second is to provide real-time feedback to automated flight controllers that guide unmanned payloads to a landing target. Existing sensors employ wired or wireless electrical or fiber-optic strain gauges. These methods are impractical given the complexities of an unfurling canopy constructed of very lightweight fabric. We will develop a novel, remotely interrogated strain gauge that will permit sensitive, robust, and real-time, two-component strain measurement in canopy fabric. A large number of the low modulus, thin-film sensors distributed across the canopy will be interrogated remotely at high frequency with a single compact, battery powered interrogation unit mounted on the payload.
