Articulated Landing Gear for Class IV UAS

The U.S. Army seeks to develop actively controlled, legged, articulated landing gear that significantly improves rugged landing capabilities of Class IV (3,000-5,000 lb.) UAS and can also support landing in degraded visual environments, ship landings, and extreme terrain operations.  In response to this need, Corvid Technologies (Corvid) proposes to perform size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) studies on scaled up versions of existing articulated landing gear designs.  Results of these studies will inform designs that can be used on Class IV UAS vehicles.  Corvid’s approach will rapidly explore the underlying design space of the landing gear system by simulating multiple physics phenomena occurring throughout operation.  These simulations will be coupled with optimization software to arrive at designs that minimize weight and power consumption during operation, minimize drag, and ensure crashworthiness.  Upon successful completion of Phase I, an optimized design will be generated, along with a streamlined simulation and SWaP-C study workflow that can further refine designs within Phase II before sub-system prototyping and experimental evaluation. Additionally, Corvid has identified Boeing as a potential integration partner for the technology developed within the proposed effort and scaled variants for larger platforms.