Flying Hydraulically Amplified Electrostatic Gripper System for Aerial Object Manipulation

Rapid and versatile object manipulation in air is an open challenge. An energy-efficient adaptive soft gripper combined with agile aerial vehicle could revolutionize robotic areas such as warehousing. This paper presents a bio-inspired powered by hydraulically amplified electrostatic actuators mounted to quadcopter that can interact safely naturally its environment. Our gripping concept motivated eagle’s foot. custom multi-actuator inspired scorpion tail design (consisting of base electrode pouches stacked adjacently) spider-inspired joints (classic pouch motors flexible hinge layer). A hybrid these two designs realizes higher force output under moderate deflections up 25 $$^\circ $$ compared single-hinge concepts. In addition, sandwiching the layer improves robustness gripper. For first time, we show possible using actuation. study demonstrates potential untethered manipulation. proof opens use hydraulic mobile systems. ( https://youtube.com/watch?v=7PmZ8C0Ji08 )