Military finds useful roles for robotic 'skydiver'.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: UNMANNED SYSTEMS

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...