Design of Control Strategy for Autonomous Perching with a Quadrotor

Perching with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has been an emerging topic in the field of biomimetic engineering during last decade. Taking the newly designed gripping mechanism into account, a control strategy for autonomous perching with a quadrotor is further proposed, implemented and validated in this paper. Based on the perching procedure of birds in nature, this article focuses on the steps of engaging with the target during perching, latching to the target after engagement and releasing from the target when de-perching. The autonomous control strategy is integrated into the gripping mechanism after it is derived. Experiments on its effectiveness and reliability with a quadrotor are finally conducted, showing that the control strategy is capable of autonomously perching a quadrotor to a target pole.

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