Wide area surveillance projectile deployment system design and modeling

Abstract

Collecting information becomes a crucial advantage for the military in combat situations. One area lacking in this domain is to rapidly obtain information which is not far from the frontline. For instance, today's military commander would have to deal with a complex hierarchy to obtain information on the enemy's location which is only a few miles away. Hence, the main objective of this project was to provide the Navy with a quick and cheap way to perform visual, short range reconnaissance missions. The concept is to launch a projectile containing an unmanned aircraft to a desired location for surveillance. This Wide Area Surveillance Projectile or WASP was developed within the context of the MIT/Draper Technology Development Partnership Project, which aimed at the development of a first-of-a-kind system within a time-frame of two years and the development of an entrepreneurial spirit in the participating engineering students at MIT. The advantage of this concept is that a surveillance mission can be done quickly, at low cost, and without any landing strip. This report describes the trade studies performed in selecting the best aerodynamic configuration in terms of performance and stability. The deployment system is an integral part of the aerodynamic performance. In the static stability analysis, the aerodynamic configuration was modeled and analyzed using existing software, to provide sufficient control for a flexible mission. In addition, the flight trajectories and deployment sequences were designed and analyzed for an optimum deployment process.