Development of A Passive Skid for Multicopter Landing on Rough Terrain

Landing is an essential part of multicopter task operations. A multicopter has relatively stringent requirements for landing, particularly for achieving flatness. Currently, landing on rough terrain with normal skids is difficult. Therefore, research is being conducted to obtain skids capable of landing on rough terrain. In this paper, a passive skid for multicopter landing on rough terrain is proposed. The proposed device is based on an existing previous study of the multicopter carried with a electric robo-arm only for object manipulation. This innovative idea stems from the aim of giving the multicopter carried with a electric robo-arm the ability to land on various occasions and then the passive skid is designed. By using a slope to simulate a rough terrain, the range of available landing in which a multicopter can maintain its pose and the frictional torque of the passive joint are analyzed. Further, experiments are conducted to demonstrate that landing can be achieved using the skid proposed in our study.