Control of Quadrotors for Robust Perching and Landing

Abstract

While the use of micro unmanned vehicles is steadily increasing, there are currently no viable approaches for perching and holding on to landing pads. We describe the design, control, and planning methodologies to enable perching. Our work builds on an off-the-shelf UAV and motion capture system and addresses (a) the design and fabrication of a claw or gripping mechanism for perching; and (b) planning and control algorithms for perching. We show experimental results illustrating the robustness of our algorithms and the performance envelope for grasping and perching.