Autonomous Parafoil Guidance in High Winds

A study is conducted to demonstrate the wind-fixed frame (WFF) approach, effectively using it as a pre-transformation to simplify path planning while explicitly accounting for estimated wind field motion. The main contribution of this study is a novel guidance algorithm enabling the system to generate trajectories in any wind condition for any phase of flight. The algorithm follows from optimal control principles and allows the specification of terminal boundary conditions while minimizing steering control effort. A nonholonomic fixed-time optimal path planning method arises naturally, with parameterized elliptic functions acting as the key trajectory descriptor by formulating parafoil guidance in this manner.