First Successful Perching on a Human Hand by a Robotic Bird Airplane (MAV/ UAV)

For perching on a stationary target, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSctVK...

The work by Aditya Paranjape, Joseph Kim, and Soon-Jo Chung at the Aerospace Robotics and Control Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
http://publish.illinois.edu/aerospace...
Narration by Jenny Roderick at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The technical details of this work can be found in the following papers.
A. Paranjape, J. Kim, and S.-J. Chung, "Novel Dihedral-Based Control of Flapping-Wing Aircraft with Application to Perching," IEEE Transactions on Robotics, under review, 2012.

A. A. Paranjape, S.-J. Chung, H. H. Hilton, and A. Chakravarthy, "Dynamics and Performance of Tailless Micro Aerial Vehicle with Flexible Articulated Wings," AIAA Journal, vol. 50, no. 5, May 2012, pp. 1177-1188.

A. A. Paranjape, S.-J. Chung, and M. S. Selig, "Flight Mechanics of a Tailless Articulated Wing Aircraft," Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, vol. 6, 026005, 2011.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Ibushi]

Compared to a plane this is indeed closer to a perch. It cancelled all forward momentum and landed within a foot of the target. He did move his hand, but the robot just dropped into it.

He didn't catch it (i.e. stopped with his hand). If his hand wasn't there, the robot would have just dropped to floor. A plane would have slid across the room.

I've only seen this done with hang gliders, but they land into the wind to keep air flowing over the wings. The robot did it in a windless room.

[Lightice1]

What about it? Who doesn't move his hand when a bird perches over it?

[Singularity2025]

Could be used as a means to observe Pirates the world over...perching on their shoulders! :)

[PhunkyChikin]

This is fantastic! Makes me proud to be a U of I alumni.

[Thorloar]

cool, now combine with flapping bio-inspired robot vehicle with "feather check valve" wings, and we will all be enslaved by robotic buzzards who will peck our eyes out for fuel.

[DaMadBlaqDrumma]

the simple act for a bird is a complicated engineering for humans. science is so cool

[t a]

Excellent work!!!!

[Andrew Higgins]

SCIENCE!

[Gaz W]

First minute of this video I thought, Yeah whatever, but seeing it fly was amazing.

[speshiled220]

this is amazing. imagine how much fun it will be to take one of this commercially

[Loys Eugene Carter]

NOTE: This is NOT an ornithopter. An ornithopter creates thrust by flapping it's wings. This is a GLIDER with individually articulated wings for bird like landing. It has no means of forward thrust which is why it is thrown from the top of a ladder.

[Loys Eugene Carter]

really, lets see your so much simpler model do the same thing, oh wait you don't have one do you. didn't think so. that's why this one is the FIRST.