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Design and Experimental Validation of an Adaptive Landing Gear for Safe Landing on Uneven Grounds of VTOL UAVs in the Context of Lightweight and Fast Adaptations

  • Research Article-Mechanical Engineering
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Abstract

One of the most fundamental problems of rotary-wing aircraft that can take off and land vertically is that they cannot land safely when the ground on which they will land is too sloped. In case they have to make their landing, they inevitably face the risk of rolling over. The main source of this problem is that these vehicles have fixed landing gear. In this study, an important solution proposal is presented by performing an adaptive passive landing gear design and control for a four-rotor UAV with low takeoff weight, within the framework of the principle of fast adaptation to the ground, low cost, and weight. The experimental studies’ results indicated the usefulness of the proposed landing gear. This adaptive landing gear, produced within the scope of this study, has a total mass of 170 g, and it got the UAV to safely land on both sloped surfaces with 15 degrees and randomly uneven surfaces.

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Abbreviations

\(\varphi\) :

Roll angle [°]

\(\theta\) :

Pitch angle [°]

\(\psi\) :

Yaw angle [°]

[B]:

Body fixed frame

[E]:

Earth fixed frame

\({{}^{B}R}_{\mathrm{E}}\) :

Rotation matrix from the body frame to the earth frame

\({M}_{\varphi }\) :

Roll moment [Nm]

\({M}_{\theta }\) :

Pitch moment [Nm]

\({M}_{\psi }\) :

Yaw moment [Nm]

\({F}_{t}\) :

Total thrust force [N]

\({\mathrm{F}}_{b}\) :

Acting on the fuselage of the UAV [N]

\({\mathrm{F}}_{g}\) :

Gravitational force acting on the UAV [N]

\({\mathrm{F}}_{d}\) :

Drag force [N]

\(K\) :

Coefficient matrix

\(m\) :

Mass of the UAV

\(g\) :

Gravitational acceleration [\(\left[ {{\raise0.7ex\hbox{${\text{m}}$} \!\mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\text{m}} {{\text{s}}^{{\text{2}}} }}}\right.\kern-\nulldelimiterspace} \!\lower0.7ex\hbox{${{\text{s}}^{{\text{2}}} }$}}} \right]\)]

\({I}_{\mathrm{xx}}\) :

Moment of inertia in the x-axis of UAV [kg m2]

\({I}_{\mathrm{yy}}\) :

Moment of inertia in the y-axis of UAV [kg m2]

\({I}_{\mathrm{zz}}\) :

Moment of inertia in the z-axis of UAV [kg m2]

\({J}_{\mathrm{r}}\) :

Moment of inertia of rotor [kg m2]

\({\Omega }_{\mathrm{r}}\) :

Angular velocity vector of rotors

\(l\) :

Distance between two opposing legs [m]

\(d\) :

Maximum distance that one leg moves on the vertical axis [m]

\(h\) :

Minimum distance between the center of gravity of the UAV and the ground [m]

\({F}_{\mathrm{f}}\) :

Friction force [N]

\({\mu }_{\mathrm{k}}\) :

Kinetic friction coefficient [-]

\({\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}\) :

Static friction coefficient [-]

\({m}_{\mathrm{l}}\) :

Mass of one leg [kg]

\({F}_{\mathrm{f}\varphi }\) :

Roll axis component of friction force [N]

\({F}_{\mathrm{f}\theta }\) :

Pitch axis component of friction force [N]

\(\upgamma\) :

Critical angle of rolling over situations [°]

\({I}_{0}\) :

Inertia of UAV around the center of mass [kg m2]

ESC:

Electronic speed controller

GPS:

Global positioning system

EKF:

Extended Kalman filter

PLA:

Polylactic acid

ABS:

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

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  1. Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey

    Nihat Çabuk

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Çabuk, N. Design and Experimental Validation of an Adaptive Landing Gear for Safe Landing on Uneven Grounds of VTOL UAVs in the Context of Lightweight and Fast Adaptations. Arab J Sci Eng 48, 12331–12344 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-023-07731-x

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