Landing and take-off capabilities of bioinspired aerial vehicles: a review

Abstract

Bioinspired Flapping-Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (FWMAVs) have
emerged over the last two decades as a promising new type of robot. Their high thrustto-
weight ratio, versatility, safety, and maneuverability, especially at small scales,
could make them more suitable than fixed-wing and multi-rotor vehicles for various
applications, especially in cluttered, confined environments and in close proximity to
humans, flora, and fauna. Unlike natural flyers, however, most FWMAVs currently
have limited take-off and landing capabilities. Natural flyers are able to take off
and land effortlessly from a wide variety of surfaces and in complex environments.
Mimicking such capabilities on flapping-wing robots would considerably enhance their
practical usage. This review presents an overview of take-off and landing techniques for
FWMAVs, covering different approaches and mechanism designs, as well as dynamics
and control aspects. The special case of perching is also included. As well as discussing
solutions investigated for FWMAVs specifically, we also present solutions that have
been developed for different types of robots but may be applicable to flapping-wing
ones. Different approaches are compared and their suitability for different applications
and types of robots is assessed. Moreover, research and technology gaps are identified,
and promising future work directions are identified.