Development of a Paraglide Control System for Automatic Pitch Stabilization to Increase the Passive Safety

Paragliders tend to collapse when entering a too low pitch angle, which can lead to dangerous situations. The aim of this project was to develop a system, which is able to stabilize the pitch axis/movement of a paraglider in order to avoid critical angles of attack and resulting front collapses. A 6 DOF sensor measured these critical pitch values during flight, a microcontroller unit activates linear actuators located in the harness of the pilot, and pulls on the D-risers of the paraglider to stabilize the overshooting. This substitutes the active reaction of a pilot and therefore is able to prevent critical flight situations. For evaluation, pitch values with and without stabilization system, during artificially induced overshooting maneuvers, got compared. The evaluation results showed a distinct influence of the system on the pitch behavior of the canopy proving the successful realization of the concept. This project was a feasibility study in terms of electronic stabilization systems for paragliders. It showed such a system is able to increase the safety of paragliders.