Design and implementation of a multimodal parameter synchronous acquisition system for equipment airdrop

Abstract

To address the challenges of spatially distributed multi-modal parameter acquisition nodes, inconsistent time references, and degraded pose estimation during satellite signal outages in equipment airdrop tests, a distributed synchronous acquisition system is designed. The system adopts a star architecture consisting of a central controller and multiple measurement nodes, and implements acquisition control and time synchronization through an RS485 bus. A three-stage pose estimation strategy is proposed, comprising magnetometer calibration, rapid in-flight initialization, and forward– backward fusion. During satellite signal outages, the attitude accuracy remains better than 1.5° (1σ). A parachute inflation-configuration parameter framework is established, including five-dimensional single-parachute parameters—deployment degree, deployment velocity, fullness, circularity, and stability—and four-dimensional multi-parachute cooperative parameters—topological structure, deployment synchronism, area consistency, and configuration discrepancy. Airdrop tests show that the inter-node temporal alignment error is less than 1 ms. The proposed parameter framework can characterize the time-varying features of multi-parachute deployment and the evolutionary pattern of group cooperation.