Military Finds Useful Roles for Robotic ‘Skydiver’

By Grace Jean

With the aid of miniature satellite-guided parachutes, unmanned aerial vehicles could deliver sensors, medical supplies and even munitions to precisely targeted destinations.

One technology currently being tested is the “Mosquito” — a small parachute that can carry up to 150-pound payloads and can deploy from UAVs flying several miles away from the intended delivery points.

“It’s like a robotic skydiver,” says Colin McCavitt, president of Stara Technologies Inc., in Mesa, Ariz.

Contained inside a cylindrical canister, the system is controlled by a computer with a chip that communicates with global positioning satellites. Payloads are attached to a plate on the bottom of the canister. When released from an aircraft at a calculated location, the system glides to the ground on a 4-foot wide parachute at a rate of 1,000 feet per minute.

There is no motor to help propel the parachute to the target. Instead, the system relies on its onboard GPS receiver to alter the course of the fall. By tugging on “risers,” which turn the parachute right or left, the system can steer to stay on course.

A UAV loitering at 15,000 feet can drop a payload within 10 meters of an intended target in about 15 minutes, says McCavitt.

The Mosquito can be programmed to release its payload at a certain altitude or it can remain intact until it hits the ground. Dropping a payload from the parachute system increases the target accuracy from within 30 meters to less than 10 meters because that free fall distance can be calculated and executed with accuracy, says McCavitt.

Though the system can be engineered to deliver many kinds of supplies, such payloads must be ruggedized enough to survive and function after such a drop, says McCavitt.

Intended payloads include unattended ground sensors, ranging from those that can sniff out weapons of mass destruction to those that can detect motion; munitions, such as anti-tank bombs, and medical supplies, such as blood packets for injured troops.

The Mosquito can be attached to aircraft outfitted with conventional military bomb racks. However, most UAVs do not have standardized racks and would have to be re-engineered to carry the system.

The company is under contract with the Army and Navy to drop unattended ground sensors from the Shadow and the Predator, respectively.

Traditionally, unattended ground sensors have required emplacement by hand, often by special operations forces, such as Navy SEALs, says McCavitt.

“There are lots of unattended ground sensors out there, but no one has addressed how you get them into the battlefield,” he says.

Unguided, round parachute systems have been utilized for the task, but aircraft must fly at extremely low altitudes to deliver them on the mark, a risky undertaking that often compromises clandestine operations. Plus payloads have missed their targets by as much as a mile.

McCavitt says the company is developing a motor to extend the range of the payloads the Mosquito places on the ground. It also is working on air-droppable cameras to complement sensor payloads.