Topology-Optimized Impact-Resistant Bionic Landing Gear for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) frequently experience landing-induced impact forces that can compromise landing-gear integrity, thereby affecting mission reliability. Conventional solid structures have challenges in balancing weight reduction with effective energy absorption, underscoring the need for novel structural designs. This study presents a lightweight, impact-resilient unmanned aerial vehicles landing-gear design that leverages topology optimization and lattice-based additive manufacturing techniques. Topology optimization was employed to reverse-engineer an existing unmanned aerial vehicle’s leg, generating two sets of lattice structures that achieved 41% and 56% weight reductions. The corresponding solid models with matched mass reductions were also designed for comparison. The optimized structures demonstrated a 30.8% increase in load-bearing capacity over density-reduced solid counterparts and a 60% improvement in energy absorption efficiency compared to the original solid model. Moreover, the lattice models extended the failure-initiation point by 50.5%, as shown by load–displacement profiles. These findings confirm that, by aligning the primary force paths with the crystal axes, it is possible to enhance the performance in terms of resistance to shock and, moreover, to reduce the weight and increase the rigidity of the structure. This design strategy offers a highly cost-effective solution in the field of lightweight energy-absorbing UAV components, offering an innovative solution.