A breakthrough in drone technology! Chinese engineers have developed ‘capable hands’ for drone, a new class of biomimetic soft drone grippers that allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform a variety of tasks. These improvements will allow UAVs to better interact with both delicate and heavy objects.

These grippers allow drones to perform well in multiple environments and a wide range of tasks, including retrieving items from hard-to-reach places, cleaning up trash in the wild and snatching branches from moving water.

Chinese engineers develop soft drone grippers inspired by climbing plants. The engineers from Zhejiang University designed U-shaped actuators that can bend and grasp objects using a hook or vine-like rope. This innovative design allows the drones to have a greater load capacity and grasp objects of varying shapes and sizes.

In an outdoor experiment, a drone flew towards a key suspended from a tree limb. Its self-adaptive gripper passed through tree limbs and then managed to firmly grasp the key via a voltage that was applied to the resistance wires.

According to the study, the soft grippers can handle a maximum weight of approximately 450 grams, making them ideal for tasks such as environmental protection. In areas where manual garbage collection is labor-intensive, these drones equipped with soft grippers could make a significant impact in cleaning up trash from rivers, lakes, and other natural habitats.