Perch landing maneuvers for a rotating wing MAV

The problem of perch landing is here considered in which a flight vehicle is to be delivered at a specified location with a prescribed orientation and near-zero final velocity. It is shown that the basic flight trajectories of perch landing often observed in nature can be derived from a relatively simple optimal control problem based on minimizing the low-speed force requirements. A case study is presented that examines the optimal flight trajectories for a MAV with non-standard aerodynamics actuators, namely rotating wings. A comparison is made of two aerodynamic models for the rotating wings, a quasi-steady model and a non-steady model. Optimal trajectories for these two models are shown to differ significantly.