Design of Bionic Landing Gear with Multi-Link Mechanism for UAVs in Desert Terrain

Abstract

The terrain in desert areas is rugged and uneven, lacking suitable landing points for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition, sand and dust in the desert can easily damage the internal circuits of propellers through vortexes. To address the high demands for hardness and smoothness of landing sites for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, as well as the low level of intelligence of traditional landing gear, an optimized biomimetic leg-type terrain-adaptive landing gear based on a multi-link hybrid mechanism was developed for landing in desert areas. First, the design configuration of a single leg was optimized, and the length of each link was calculated accordingly, followed by motion simulations. Secondly, the overall design was developed, and slope landing simulations were conducted on the four-leg mechanism. Research results showed that the optimized multi-link hybrid mechanism terrain-adaptive landing gear was better suited for adapting to desert terrain and could land on sand dune slopes, effectively improving the adaptability of VTOL aircraft in desert areas.