Small flying robots able to pull objects up to 40 times their weight

Researchers from EPFL and Stanford have developed small drones that can land and then move objects that are 40 times their weight, with the help of powerful winches, gecko adhesives and microspines. A closed door is just one of many obstacles that no longer pose a barrier to the small flying robots developed jointly by Stanford University and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Equipped with advanced gripping technology - inspired by gecko and insect feet - and able to interact with the world around them, these robots can work together to lasso a door handle and tug the door open. These FlyCroTugs - flying, micro, tugging robots - came out of the laboratories run by Mark Cutkosky, the Fletcher Jones Chair in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, and Dario Floreano, at EPFL's School of Engineering. FlyCroTugs are micro air vehicles that the researchers modified so that they can anchor themselves to various surfaces using gecko adhesives and microspines. Thanks to these mechanisms, FlyCroTugs can pull objects up to 40 times their weight, such as door handles or, in a rescue scenario, cameras and water bottles. Similar vehicles produced by other researchers can tug objects only about twice their weight.