Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania develop grasping quadcopter inspired from prey birds

The Grasp Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania developed a quadcopter with a robotic arm, that is able to “grasp”, like an eagle does.

An eagle grasping a prey from water - Photo Peter Groneman
An eagle grasping a prey from water – Photo  Peter Groneman

The grasping action was successfully tested to a speed up to 3 m/s (7,2 Km/h).

Upenn robot quadcopter in the act of grasping a target object
Upenn robot quadcopter in the act of grasping a target object

Successful in-flight grasping of a target item with robotic multirotor

Successful in-flight grasping of a target item with robotic multirotor

Considering this is now done with a flying robot, the achievement is quite impressive. And in a way, possibly scary. Will we see a world with big multirotors grasping the “bad guys” from the streets? Well, at least not until the FAA have sorted out an appropriate regulation for commercial civilian flights 🙂

The grasping quadcopter developed at Upenn
The grasping quadcopter developed at Upenn

The following video was actually posted on February 7 2013 and no other updates have been available on the channel since then.

The age of machines is coming closer, make sure you have the red pill ready, or maybe…

Blue or red, the choice is yours
Blue or red, the choice is yours

Stay tuned on the Personal Drones Blog for the latests news on multirotor research!

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