Drones

Parachutes with hundreds of holes could enable safer drone deliveries

Parachutes with hundreds of holes could enable safer drone deliveries
When descending through the air, the kirigami parachute takes on an inverted bell shape
When descending through the air, the kirigami parachute takes on an inverted bell shape
View 6 Images
When descending through the air, the kirigami parachute takes on an inverted bell shape
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When descending through the air, the kirigami parachute takes on an inverted bell shape
Air flows through the stretched slits in the parachute without causing chaotic drag and allows the payload to land close to its intended target
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Air flows through the stretched slits in the parachute without causing chaotic drag and allows the payload to land close to its intended target
Researchers Frédérick Gosselin (left), Danick Lamoureux (middle), and David Mélançon (right) with a prototype of their kirigami-patterned plastic parachute
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Researchers Frédérick Gosselin (left), Danick Lamoureux (middle), and David Mélançon (right) with a prototype of their kirigami-patterned plastic parachute
The parachute, seen here fitted to a bottle, can be cheaply produced using a laser cutter and a wide range of materials, and doesn't require extensive assembly
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The parachute, seen here fitted to a bottle, can be cheaply produced using a laser cutter and a wide range of materials, and doesn't require extensive assembly
The researchers tested several prototypes of their parachute, dropped rom a height of 200 ft dozens of times in their experiments
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The researchers tested several prototypes of their parachute, dropped rom a height of 200 ft dozens of times in their experiments
The parachute descends almost vertically, making for a predictable trajectory
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The parachute descends almost vertically, making for a predictable trajectory
View gallery - 6 images

A team of researchers in France and Canada might have just improved upon humble parachutes by making lots of holes in them.

Inspired by Kirigami, the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper into decorative shapes, this type of parachute can descend through the air in a stable manner, and land very close to a target directly beneath it. That could go a long way towards making it easier to accurately and safely airdrop humanitarian aid packages, and efficiently deliver parcels by drone.

The idea bounced around Polytechnique Montreal's Mechanical Engineering department for a while before researchers developed it further, and gathered the necessary resources to put it to the test. After experimenting with a range of patterns to laser-cut into plastic sheets, they arrived at the right closed-loop pattern that would see the sheet turn into an inverted bell when dropped from the sky, and gracefully land near its target.

Researchers Frédérick Gosselin (left), Danick Lamoureux (middle), and David Mélançon (right) with a prototype of their kirigami-patterned plastic parachute
Researchers Frédérick Gosselin (left), Danick Lamoureux (middle), and David Mélançon (right) with a prototype of their kirigami-patterned plastic parachute

The team tested numerous prototypes by dropping a bottle equipped with a kirigami parachute from a height of nearly 200 ft (60 m). You can see it in action in the clip below. The team also published a paper on this work in Nature this week.

The parachute descends almost vertically, making for a predictable trajectory
The parachute descends almost vertically, making for a predictable trajectory

Traditional parachutes trap air beneath themselves and create drag that slows their descent. However, too much drag can knock the parachute off course, and cause it to land someplace other than its intended destination.

That makes airdropping humanitarian aid parcels – whether in wartime or in the midst of natural disasters – a tricky affair. Parcels can arrive damaged to some extent, or drift away and become hard to retrieve.

The researchers tested several prototypes of their parachute, dropped rom a height of 200 ft dozens of times in their experiments
The researchers tested several prototypes of their parachute, dropped rom a height of 200 ft dozens of times in their experiments

The kirigami parachute largely addresses these concerns. “The inverted bell shape stretches the slits of the kirigami pattern and forces the air through its numerous small openings. This causes the airflow to remain orderly, without large chaotic vortices, resulting in a predictable trajectory,” explained Frédérick Gosselin, a professor at the engineering institute who dreamed this parachute up in the first place.

Air flows through the stretched slits in the parachute without causing chaotic drag and allows the payload to land close to its intended target
Air flows through the stretched slits in the parachute without causing chaotic drag and allows the payload to land close to its intended target

It's also cheap and easy to produce from a range of materials, using just a laser cutter or die cutting machine; there's no stitching or complex assembly required.

The parachute, seen here fitted to a bottle, can be cheaply produced using a laser cutter and a wide range of materials, and doesn't require extensive assembly
The parachute, seen here fitted to a bottle, can be cheaply produced using a laser cutter and a wide range of materials, and doesn't require extensive assembly

There's work to be done yet to perfect the novel design; the researchers hope to incorporate ideas from origami to make their parachute packable or add stiffness, and alter its descent depending on the type of cargo it's carrying.

Source: Polytechnique Montreal

View gallery - 6 images
7 comments
7 comments
Global
Ground impact loads versus traditional parachutes, looks like an accurate hard landing.
Username
It doesn't seem to slow down the fall very much.
ANTIcarrot
At 60m height, it should take ~3.5 seconds for the bottle to hit the ground. The parachute is extending that to ~4.5 seconds. That isn't nothing, but it isn't much either. It's also a stupid stunt video, when the measured terminal velocity of the bottle in a wind tunnel would be much more useful. I suspect the reason they haven't given us that very simple number is because it isn't very impressive. Still, might have some niche applications.
YourAmazonOrder
It's all fun and games until one of those things lands squarely on someone head or the wind catches it and it smashes through a windshield.
Trylon
Wow. Typical of these comments sections. So quick to judge and criticize to try to seem smarter than the inventors. These were test prototypes dropped from drones. That means by their very nature, they have to be small because a drone can't lift a very large payload. Drop a conventional parachute of comparable size holding the same bottle and you won't see much deceleration either. In fact, the abstract of the linked study actually says the terminal velocity is essentially the same as regular parachutes with the same area and load. The team says it can scaled up if necessary for dropping larger payloads from cargo aircraft. It's for humanitarian air drops, not "fun and games" as one cynic posted. And the major advantage they claimed aside from the easier, cheaper fabrication is that it stays on target and is much less likely to be blown off course by the wind. Read the article first before leaping to comment, folks!
michael_dowling
Could it be used for people? Cheaper way to get into parachuting.
Brian M
Be more impressed to know what the terminal velocity was, it looks way too much like a hard landing? But probably fine for cans of baked beans not landing on my head (or anyone else's). Also not exactly a hard landing surface, bottle might have survived without a parachute anyway - again terminal velocity at different heights would tells us how good or bad an idea!.