10 December 2024

Drones with Legs

RAVEN (Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments) drone, with its bird-inspired legs, can do jumping takeoffs just like crows do, and can use those same legs to get around on the ground pretty well. The drone’s bird-inspired legs adopted some key principles of biological design like the ability to store and release energy in tendon-like springs along with some flexible toes. Multifunctional legs bring RAVEN much closer to birds, and although these mechanical legs are not nearly as complex and capable as actual bird legs, adopting some key principles of biological design allows RAVEN to get around in a very bird-like way.

RAVEN is approximately the size of a crow, with a wingspan of 100 centimeters and a body length of 50 cm. It can walk a meter in just under four seconds, hop over 12 cm gaps, and jump into the top of a 26 cm obstacle. For the jumping takeoff, RAVEN’s legs propel the drone to a starting altitude of nearly half a meter, with a forward velocity of 2.2 m/s. RAVEN’s a 620-gram drone of which a full 230 grams consists of feet and toes and actuators and whatnot. A vision system that could be used for both obstacle avoidance and landing is in the works, as are wings that can fold to allow the drone to pass through narrow gaps.

More information:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bird-drone