Small flying robots haul heavy loads

Small flying robots can perch and move objects 40 times their weight with the help of powerful winches and two previous inventions - gecko adhesives and microspines. A closed door is just one of many obstacles that poses no barrier to a new type of flying, micro, tugging robot called a FlyCroTug. Outfitted with advanced gripping technologies and the ability to move and pull on objects around it, two FlyCroTugs can jointly lasso the door handle and heave the door open. Go to the web site to Developed in the labs of Mark Cutkosky , the Fletcher Jones Chair in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, and Dario Floreano at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, FlyCroTugs are micro air vehicles that the researchers have modified so the vehicles can anchor themselves to various surfaces using adhesives inspired by the feet of geckos and insects, previously developed in Cutkosky's lab. With these attachment mechanisms, FlyCroTugs can pull objects up to 40 times their weight, like door handles in one scenario, or cameras and water bottles in a rescue situation. Similar vehicles can only lift objects about twice their own weight using aerodynamic forces. "When you're a small robot, the world is full of large obstacles," said Matthew Estrada, a graduate student at Stanford and lead author of a paper on FlyCroTugs, published Oct.