Ford is pushing the envelope in figuring out how to integrate a drone with its vehicles, even holding an open-call contest, asking developers to devise a way for a drone to launch from the bed of an F-150 pickup truck.
To that end, researchers from the German Aerospace Center have demonstrated the ability to safely land a drone — traveling at speeds up to 47 miles per hour — onto a moving car, as footage obtained by the BBC shows.
Through the demonstration, these researchers told the BBC that they think unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could hover in the air for longer if they don't have wheels as part of their design.
As the video, obtained by the BBC, shows, the drone utilized a marker on the car's roof in addition to other sensor data to line itself up with precision. The way the system is set up, it aborts the landing if the vehicles are incorrectly lined up. That, researchers explain, paves the way for drones to be manufactured without landing gear.
"If you have long missions flying in the stratosphere, you don't need to carry your landing gear around," Tin Muskardin, from the German Aerospace Center, explains to the BBC in the clip. "So, the idea is removing that and saving that weight for additional scientific instruments."
In order words, the driver of the car and pilot of the drone would be getting a more efficient flying and landing experience.
Researchers add that in theory this could prove safer than trying to land a drone on a runway in bad weather.
