QUADCOPTERS THESE DAYS are so precious. They take off and hover, taking pictures or whatever, and then land, recharge—and blah. If these drones were birds, they’d be prey. But the Stereotyped Nature-Inspired Aerial Grasper, or SNAG, would be their apex predator. This new quadcopter has legs, each loaded with four 3D-printed talons that lock around whatever makes contact with them, be it a branch to rest on or perhaps, someday, other drones flying where they’re not supposed to. That’s right, it’s a drone that might hunt drones.
Over the years, quadcopters have mastered the skies, but not so much the landing: A drone is liable to tip over and bork its rotors on a moderately uneven surface. Birds, by contrast, can wrap their feet around just about anything, getting a grip with their toe pads and talons, which get a purchase on the roughness of a branch. “Everything is a landing strip for a bird,” says David Lentink, a biologist and roboticist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, coauthor on a new paper describing the robot in the journal Science Robotics. “To us, this is really inspiring: The whole idea that if you would just design different landing gear, you might be able to perch just anywhere.”
SNAG is specifically inspired by the peregrine falcon, a predator among predators. This raptor dive-bombs at speeds up to 200 miles per hour, slamming into other birds in midair and sinking its talons into their flesh. It’s the fastest animal on earth and an absolute menace in the sky.
Continue reading: https://www.wired.com/story/this-drone-uses-piercing-talons-to-perch-or-snatch-things/
Over the years, quadcopters have mastered the skies, but not so much the landing: A drone is liable to tip over and bork its rotors on a moderately uneven surface. Birds, by contrast, can wrap their feet around just about anything, getting a grip with their toe pads and talons, which get a purchase on the roughness of a branch. “Everything is a landing strip for a bird,” says David Lentink, a biologist and roboticist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, coauthor on a new paper describing the robot in the journal Science Robotics. “To us, this is really inspiring: The whole idea that if you would just design different landing gear, you might be able to perch just anywhere.”
SNAG is specifically inspired by the peregrine falcon, a predator among predators. This raptor dive-bombs at speeds up to 200 miles per hour, slamming into other birds in midair and sinking its talons into their flesh. It’s the fastest animal on earth and an absolute menace in the sky.
Continue reading: https://www.wired.com/story/this-drone-uses-piercing-talons-to-perch-or-snatch-things/
