P-Flap Robot Bird Talon
It’s no PHRACTYL Macrobat, but the autonomous P-Flap robot bird by researchers in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne does have a talon-like claw mechanism that enables it to land safely on a perch. This Perching Flapping-Wing Robot (P-Flap) boasts a 59-inch (1.5-meter) wingspan and its carbon fiber claw requires no external power source to stay open or closed, as it’s directly connected to the robot’s under-body.



When P-Flap descends upon a horizontal perch, wirelessly transmitted data enables it to determine its precise location relative to the landing area. This data is then used to adjust its altitude and pitch to land safely. When it gets close enough to the perch, the claw takes just 25 milliseconds to open and grasp it.

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P-Flap Robot Bird Talon
P-Flap Robot Bird Talon

At the moment, the flight experiments are carried out indoors, because we need to have a controlled flight zone with precise localization from the motion capture system. In the future, we would like to increase the robot’s autonomy to perform perching and manipulation tasks outdoors in a more unpredictable environment,” said Raphael Zufferey, a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

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