Tipping rotor discs into a steep hillsides, rocky terrain and rocking ships are all challenges helicopter pilots can face. A level landing is always the goal, but doing so in some extreme cases takes super-human coordination. Other times, it can result in disaster. That’s why having the helicopter’s landing gear adapt to the terrain, instead of having the pilot adapt to it, is so attractive…
The idea behind the Robotic Landing Gear is to replace standard skids or wheeled landing gear with an adaptive system via the use of automatically articulating legs. These legs can fold in tight to the fuselage while cruising, then during landing, they splay out and “feel” for the ground as the helicopter descends. Force sensors tied to a central computer determine the right angle for each leg so that the helicopter stays as level as possible relative to the terrain.
via Gizmodo
