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Rod-based Fabrication of Customizable Soft Robotic Pneumatic Gripper Devices for Delicate Tissue Manipulation

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Repeatable energy-efficient perching for flapping-wing robots using soft-grippers.

Krispin Colm Veit Broers¹, Sophie F Armanini¹

¹Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.

Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

|October 29, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a novel perching and take-off system for flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs). This bio-inspired mechanism enables sustained perching and efficient take-off, enhancing FWMAV mission capabilities.

Keywords:

aerial robotics flapping-wing MAV (FWMAV)flapping-wing take-off and landing grippers micro aerial vehicles (MAVs)perching soft robotics

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Area of Science:

Robotics
Bio-inspired Engineering
Aerospace Engineering

Background:

Flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs) mimic avian and insect flight for high maneuverability.
Current FWMAVs lack essential perching and take-off capabilities, limiting their mission duration and operational complexity.
Enabling perching is crucial for advanced applications like long-term surveillance and operations in cluttered environments.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and test a framework for repeatable perching and take-off in small- to medium-sized FWMAVs.
To integrate a novel active-passive actuation system inspired by bird digital tendon locking.
To enable energy-conserving, indefinite perching and efficient take-off for FWMAVs.

Main Methods:

Designed and manufactured a lightweight (under 39g) perching and take-off system utilizing soft, non-damaging grippers.
Implemented an active-passive actuation system mimicking avian tendon locking for power and low energy consumption.
Conducted extensive free-flight tests on a 110g flapping-wing robot to validate the system's performance.

Main Results:

Successfully demonstrated repeatable landing, perching, and subsequent take-off in free-flight tests.
The active-passive actuation system achieved an energy-conserving state during perching with minimal weight penalty.
Telemetry data provided valuable insights into the system's behavior during the complete mission cycle.

Conclusions:

The developed framework significantly enhances FWMAV capabilities by enabling sustained perching and efficient take-off.
The bio-inspired actuation system offers a viable solution for low-power, high-grip perching in micro aerial vehicles.
This research represents a significant advancement towards the full automation and optimization of FWMAV take-off and landing cycles.