Landing an Autonomous Aircraft On a Moving Car

Landing unmanned aerial vehicles on the ground is nothing special these days. Landing on moving platforms at a high speed offers a whole set of new challenges though. As the below video suggests, DLR researchers have succeeded in landing an unmanned aerial vehicle traveling at 75 km/h on a moving car.

The system was initially developed for landing a solar aircraft without landing gear. The aircraft has an optical tracking system to detect the ground vehicle. By eliminating the landing gear, payload capacity is increased. More information is available here.