Automated image measurement of parachute projection area under inflation process

Abstract

Parachute projection area plays a vital role in parachute design and performance analysis. This paper presents an effective method for automated measurement of parachute projection area under inflation process. After masking out the unwanted artifacts according to their own characteristics, the canopy could be segmented from the images using edge operators and morphological operations. The contour of the occluded or missing part would be estimated correctly by spline fitting method. The projection area of the canopy is calculated by the segmentation results. Experimental results show that the present method is accurate and efficient in canopy detection, and the obtained curve of the projection area could be used in parachute design and performance analysis directly. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.