Drop Calculation

Payload Drop Calculations

A functioning airdrop mechanism is great for dropping payloads onto targets, but since our payload has no guidance system built into it, we need to calculate where and when to drop in order to hit our target with simple projectile motion.

First attempts at calculating included plotting simple physics projectile motion in python, but the idea was scrapped after having some difficulty figuring out how to include all the various variables that occur in the real world. Instead, a matlab script was developed to simulate airdrop conditions prior to completing the mechanism itself.

Using this as our basis, we tried to emulate the matlab script in python, removing unnecessary components such as storing data to plot a graph of the results and incorporating random wind gusts, as the plane would be providing values based off of measurements from the onboard sensors.

The prediction function relies on the Euler Method of approximation for plotting out the path of the payload in a 3D space. This script, when given the plane's location and other information such as wind gusts, will return a GPS location of where the plane should drop its payload in order to hit a certain location. Whether this GPS coordinate is actually reasonable, has yet to be investigated.