Rapid aerial grasping through robots can lead to many applications that utilize fast and dynamic picking and placing of objects. Rigid grippers traditionally used in aerial manipulators require high precision and specific object geometries for successful grasping. We propose RAPTOR, a quadcopter platform combined with a custom Fin Ray gripper to enable more flexible grasping of objects with different geometries, leveraging the properties of soft materials to increase the contact surface between the gripper and the objects. To reduce the communication latency, we present a new lightweight middleware solution based on Fast DDS (Data Distribution Service) as an alternative to ROS (Robot Operating System). We show that RAPTOR achieves an average of 83% grasping efficacy in a real-world setting for four different object geometries while moving at an average velocity of 1 m/s during grasping. In a high-velocity setting, RAPTOR supports up to four times the payload compared to previous works. Our results highlight the potential of aerial drones in automated warehouses and other manipulation applications where speed, swiftness, and robustness are essential while operating in hard-to-reach places.

翻译：通过机器人实现快速空中抓取可催生众多利用物体快速动态拾取与放置的应用。传统刚性夹爪在用于空中机械臂时，需要高精度定位和特定物体几何形状才能成功抓取。我们提出RAPTOR——一种结合定制Fin Ray柔性夹爪的四旋翼飞行平台，利用软体材料的特性增加夹爪与物体之间的接触面积，从而实现对不同几何形状物体的更灵活抓取。为降低通信延迟，我们提出一种基于Fast DDS（数据分发服务）的新型轻量级中间件解决方案，作为ROS（机器人操作系统）的替代方案。实验表明，在真实场景中，RAPTOR对四种不同几何形状物体的抓取成功率达83%（平均），且抓取过程中飞行平均速度为1米/秒。在高速场景下，RAPTOR的载荷能力较先前研究提升至四倍。我们的研究结果凸显了无人机在自动化仓库及其他需在难以抵达区域实现高速、敏捷与稳健操作的应用场景中的潜力。