Active Gripper Development for Perching of Unmanned Aerial Systems

Unmanned aerial systems are useful for a number of applications due to their low cost, size, and ability to more easily and safely go to places which might otherwise be infeasible for humans. However, many such systems are power hungry and as a result small unmanned aerial systems have limited flight times and ranges due to the limited amount of energy they can store onboard. To address the onboard power limitations of a battery powered small unmanned aerial system, a concept has been proposed to wherein an unmanned aerial system could fly along, land on, perch from, recharge, and release from a powerline. To support this concept, the current study develops and analyzes three different active gripper devices: a linear bistable gripper, a swing arm gripper, and a rotary gripper. Each gripper design is analyzed using finite element analysis to verify its ability to enable a small unmanned aerial system to grip onto and enable a small unmanned aerial system to perch from a powerline. Prototypes of the linear bistable and rotary grippers are also built and tested, validating their ability to grasp onto and enable a load to perch.