An automated system for motioning the cargo for ground and air operations

Abstract

There are instances encountered very often when some cargo items are to be loaded to or unloaded from some motored vehicles operating on ground, or some commercial cargo aircrafts. This is one of the key requirements in case of scenarios like occurrence of some natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, cloudbursts, cyclones, etc. post-war situation, etc. Food packets, drinking water, communication devices, etc., constitute a major fraction of cargo in such cases. Pace and quickness of delivery of aid material becomes one of the major concerns then, since generally a huge number of people are affected by these disastrous events. We need quick loading and unloading of cargo then. To ensure fast loading of cargo on to the trucks and more especially cargo aircrafts, quick unloading at the desired site, as well as quick airdrop, an automated system has been designed for the same at CFI, IIT Madras. This paper explains the conceptual design of that automated system. The dynamics of the system have been discussed and some force analysis of the cargo motioning process has been carried out.