Design and Implementation of a Quadrotor UAV with a Soft Gripper

The integration of a mechanical gripper on a quadrotor UAV significantly broadens its application scope by enabling the UAV to interact with environmental objects. This paper presents the design and implementation of a quadrotor UAV system equipped with a soft gripper. The system primarily consists of the quadrotor UAV and the soft gripper, which is mounted on the UAV to enable active interaction with external objects. Compared to traditional rigid grippers, the soft gripper offers higher compliance, stronger adaptability, simpler control, and is less likely to cause damage to objects. Additionally, compared to pneumatic soft grippers, the soft gripper has a simpler structure without the need for air pumps or other accessories, thereby reducing the weight of the UAV and extending its flight time. Furthermore, the soft gripper is easy to control, flexible, and lightweight, combining with the UAV to achieve aerial manipulation, which makes it possible to help people pick up garbage in dangerous areas and assist fruit farmers in harvesting strawberries in the field. Experimental test results show that the designed quadrotor UAV and soft gripper have stable and reliable performance, and their combination can achieve aerial grasping and releasing.