UC San Diego

Current battery technology only enables a flight time of less than an hour for UAV applications. Several applications in surveillance and surveying benefit from ability of UAVs to perch at strategic locations. Existing mechanism designs on perching UAVs either require specialized manufacturing techniques or are disproportionately heavy and hence decrease the flight time. Current work utilizes advances in soft materials to achieve a compliant mechanism capable of perching on a variety of surfaces. The work begins with a description of design, manufacturing and modelling of a tendon driven soft actuator. The actuator is then utilized to construct a claw-like perching mechanism suitable of rotor-based UAVs.