Parachute Emergency Landing System for Trinity Pro UAV: Design, Prototyping, and Testing.

As UAVs increasingly permeate commercial and government sectors, the necessity for advanced safety systems to enable new operational paradigms, such as over-people and beyond visual line-of-sight flights, grows. This thesis aims to develop an emergency system prototype for the Trinity Pro UAV produced by Quantum Systems, consequently enhancing the feasibility of obtaining permissions for beyond visual line-of-sight flights and over-people flights. Motivated by the market need for reliable safety systems to address potential in-flight crashes or failures, this work begins with an analysis of existing UAV incidents and regulatory requirements. Several challenges were encountered, such as the absence of universally recognized standards and the complexity of quantifying the maximum impact energy that would allow an intact payload landing. After conducting a thorough review of current regulations to establish high-level design requirements, the design process focused on the selection of a suitable parachute system and the development of three ejection system concepts. The final parachute area was achieved by graphing the performance curves of various parachutes, scaled according to size, to quantitatively assess their suitability for our specific application. In determining the most promising ejection system concept, a comprehensive analysis was conducted to evaluate the pros and cons of each design. The most promising design was further refined, prototyped, and subjected to extensive ground and flight testing, thus validating its mechanical functionality and safety efficacy through inertial data and video capture. This project underscores the importance of integrating backup systems into UAVs to enhance safety and facilitate the deep integration of drones into civil aerial space for crowded events or commercial uses over cities. The outcomes of this project have been recognized for their potential to significantly enhance UAV safety and reduce the risk for third parties. Consequentially, Quantum Systems intends to incorporate these design into future updates of the Trinity Pro, marking an important milestone toward achieving safer and more reliable UAV operations across various applications.