Research on cushioning characteristics of UAV soft landing airbags

For an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with high-mounted wings, a simplified analytical model is established to analyze the cushioning characteristics of a soft landing airbag system and determine the initial design parameters of the soft landing airbags. A finite element model is established and a series of simulations are conducted to analyze the influence of design parameters and landing attitude angle on cushioning characteristics. Numerical results show that the results obtained by FEM and the analytical model are the same, but the errors of impact response values calculated by two models are still 5%~12.5% because of the introduction of some assumptions in the analytical model; and the existence of initial landing attitude angles makes the pitch and roll motions of UAV much worse in the later stage of landing process, so that the rigid impact occurs easily. However, a vented airbag system is incapable of avoiding the local damage caused by the rigid impact. The study also shows that the proposed hybrid airbag scheme can provide a reliable soft support in the later stage of soft landing process and reduce the risk of suffering the rigid impact.