TY - JOUR AB - One of the main challenges for autonomous aerial robots is to land safely on a target position on varied surface structures in realworld applications. Most of current aerial robots (especially multirotors) use only rigid landing gears, which limit the adaptability to environments and can cause damage to the sensitive cameras and other electronics onboard. This paper presents a bioinpsired landing system for autonomous aerial robots, built on the inspire–abstract–implement design paradigm and an additive manufacturing process for soft thermoplastic materials. This novel landing system consists of 3D printable Sarrus shock absorbers and soft landing pads which are integrated with an onedegreeoffreedom actuation mechanism. Both designs of the Sarrus shock absorber and the soft landing pad are analyzed via finite element analysis, and are characterized with dynamic mechanical measurements. The landing system with 3D printed soft components is characterized by completing landing tests on flat, convex, and concave steel structures and grassy field in a total of 60 times at different speeds between 1 and 2 m/s. The adaptability and shock absorption capacity of the proposed landing system is then evaluated and benchmarked against rigid legs. It reveals that the system is able to adapt to varied surface structures and reduce impact force by 540N at maximum. The bioinspired landing strategy presented in this paper opens a promising avenue in Aerial Biorobotics, where a crossdisciplinary approach in vehicle control and navigation is combined with soft technologies, enabled with adaptive morphology. AU - Zhang,K AU - Chermprayong,P AU - Tzoumanikas,D AU - Li,W AU - Grimm,M AU - Smentoch,M AU - Leutenegger,S AU - Kovac,M DO - 10.1002/rob.21840 EP - 251 PY - 2019/// SN - 1556-4959 SP - 230 TI - Bioinspired design of a landing system with soft shock absorbers for autonomous aerial robots T2 - Journal of Field Robotics UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rob.21840 UR - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000455132600013&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/rob.21840 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/88067 VL - 36 ER -