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Covert Precision Aerial Delivery System

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA8222-12-C-0015
Agency Tracking Number: F103-250-0600
Amount: $749,979.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF103-250
Solicitation Number: 2010.3
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2010
Award Year: 2012
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2012-09-13
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2014-04-07
Small Business Information
1510 Springport Rd Suite C
Jackson, MI -
United States
DUNS: 005055582
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Stephen Ziegenfuss
 Mechanical Engineer
 (517) 784-8340
 sziegenfuss@sealandaire.com
Business Contact
 David Sparks
Title: President
Phone: (517) 784-8340
Email: dsparks@sealandaire.com
Research Institution
 Stub
Abstract

ABSTRACT: In today"s warfare, accurate payload placement is necessary to maintain the tactical advantage we have been fostering throughout our history. Continuing evolution in air to ground mission objectives has brought new opportunities to technologically evolve the state of the art in accurate air drop capabilities. The CPADS effort is a significant opportunity to develop a new solution for accurate payload placement. This opportunity also brings new very relevant challenges in increased mechanical modularity, increased operational autonomy, and decreased system level cost. SeaLandAire Technologies together with its team member CH Robotics researched the development of a tandem wing glider as a solution to the military"s aerial delivery performance gap. Our proposed approach is an autonomous, covert glider designed to deliver payloads to the ground with a high degree of accuracy. Its novelty lies in the operational simplicity achieved through the use of a self-contained custom autopilot and mission planner, the repeatable and safe payload delivery obtained using stall and parachute maneuvers, and the high amount of accuracy achieved with a sophisticated autopilot path planner and a unique parachute reefing system. A glider-based solution has a number of advantages over other methods, including decreased cost, and increased payload, covertness, and landing accuracy. BENEFIT: This Phase II program will culminate in a hardware demonstration for our proposed covert precision aerial delivery system (ADS). The program will prove the original technical feasibility studies established in the Phase I effort. The focus of the Phase II program is to prove the performance of the proposed CPADS system referenced to the original solicitation requirements. With this information, the ability of the CPADS to provide the needed supplies and sensors to ground forces and specific locations will be demonstrated. Specifically, the development of the low cost autopilot system can positively effect future R & D in the continued development unmanned aerial systems, ground vehicles, and autonomous surface vehicles. Currently autopilot technology that is available on the market, from suppliers such as Microbotics and Procerus, can be prohibitively expensive for initial research and development effortsspecifically phase I SBIR efforts. Providing the market with a lower cost version could have significant implications on the continued development of these critical fields.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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