Streamlining Drone Design

Watch a Drone Land Autonomously on a Car Driving 45 mph. (+Video)

Where we're going, we don't need our own wheels

Kelsey D. Atherton | January 19, 2016

The heavier a given drone is, the less time it can spend flying. The point of a camera-carrying drone like a Penguin-BE is to fly for a long time, its camera watching the ground below. One way to increase flight time is to get rid of parts on the plane, but after a certain point, there’s not much left to remove. The plane needs its camera, engine, wings, and the body that holds it all together. But does it really need its landing gear?

Researchers at the German Aerospace Centre or DLR, tested the three-metre-long, 20-kilogram unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in an air field in Bavaria. They put a suspended net on top of a car, drove it at 45mph, and waited for the drone to match speed. The roof of the car it landed on was equipped with a platform that had optical markers, guiding the drone to its landing. Source: http://www.techworm.net/2016/01/watch-autonomous-drone-land-moving-car-driving-45-kmph.html

<more at http://www.popsci.com/drone-autonomously-lands-on-car-at-45-mph; related links: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/01/drone-lands-on-45mph-car-autonomously/ (+Video) (Drone Lands On 45MPH Car Autonomously. January 19, 2016) and http://www.techworm.net/2016/01/watch-autonomous-drone-land-moving-car-driving-45-kmph.html (Watch an autonomous drone land on a moving car driving at 45 kmph. January 21, 2016)>