Wasp-inspired 40x drone drags

Called FlyCroTug, its operation was partially inspired by wasps.

"Wasps can fly quickly to a piece of food, and then the thing is too heavy to take off, they drag it along the ground. So, this said, "said Mark Cutkosky of Stanford University, which worked with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

FlyCroTug can do. Not only do they do it, but through the 3D environment.

The drone has a winch, on the end of which can be attached to various custom hooks and adapters.

This arrangement makes it easier to travel to the world, and to travel to other countries.

For example, two FlyCroTugs were used to open a door, by hooking the lever-type handle, flying down to the floor, pulling the handle until the lock unlatched, then further pulling to open the door.

In another exercise, a single drone flew to the top of a structure and hauled up a camera to view inside.

To get traction on smooth surfaces, the feet of the drone are covered with a micro-structured surface that is covered by gecko toes – which allows geckos to walk up glass. For gripping rough surfaces, there is also a row of 32 small fish-hook-like barbed spines on the drone body.

For other functions there are various other attachments that can be picked up, such as landing wheels.

"Said Dario Floreano of EPFL," said Dario Floreano of EPFL, "People tend to think of drones as they fly and observe the world, but flying insects do many other things – such as walking, climbing, grasping, building – and social insects. . "With this work, we show that small drones capable of being anchored to the environment and collaborating with fellow drones can perform tasks typically assigned to humanoid robots or much larger machines."

Next, the team aims to work on autonomous control, and the logistics of operating multiple vehicles at once.

This research was published as 'Forceful manipulation with micro air vehicles' in Science Robotics.