Avian-Inspired Claws Enable Robot Perching or Walking
Mohammad Askari, Won Dong Shin, Damian Lenherr, William Stewart, Dario, Floreano

TL;DR
This paper introduces an avian-inspired claw design for UAVs that enables passive perching and walking, expanding their operational capabilities by mimicking bird behaviors.
Contribution
The paper presents a lightweight, underactuated claw mechanism combining Hoberman linkage and Fin Ray design, allowing UAVs to perch and walk using their own weight.
Findings
Claws can hold a 700g UAV at 20-degree perch angle.
The design is lightweight at 45g and low power.
Enables UAVs to operate in cluttered environments with longer mission times.
Abstract
Multimodal UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are rarely capable of more than two modalities, i.e., flying and walking or flying and perching. However, being able to fly, perch, and walk could further improve their usefulness by expanding their operating envelope. For instance, an aerial robot could fly a long distance, perch in a high place to survey the surroundings, then walk to avoid obstacles that could potentially inhibit flight. Birds are capable of these three tasks, and so offer a practical example of how a robot might be developed to do the same. In this paper, we present a specialized avian-inspired claw design to enable UAVs to perch passively or walk. The key innovation is the combination of a Hoberman linkage leg with Fin Ray claw that uses the weight of the UAV to wrap the claw around a perch, or hyperextend it in the opposite direction to form a curved-up shape for stable…
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Taxonomy
TopicsRobotic Locomotion and Control · Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms · Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics
