Aerial robots have garnered significant attention due to their potential applications in various industries, such as inspection, search and rescue, and drone delivery. However, the ability of these robots to effectively grasp and land on objects or surfaces is often crucial for the successful completion of missions. This paper presents a novel modular soft gripper design tailored explicitly for aerial grasping and landing operations. The proposed modular pneumatic soft gripper incorporates a feed-forward proportional controller to regulate pressure, enabling compliant gripping capabilities. The modular connectors of the soft fingers offer two configurations of the 4-finger soft gripper, H-base and X-base, allowing adaptability to different target objects. Furthermore, when deflated, the gripper can function as a soft landing gear, reducing the weight and complexity of aerial manipulation control and enhancing flight efficiency. We demonstrate the efficacy of indoor aerial grasping and achieve a maximum payload of 217 g for the proposed soft aerial vehicle (SAV), with the weight of the soft drone being 808 g.

翻译：空中机器人因其在巡检、搜索救援及无人机配送等行业的潜在应用而备受关注。然而，这些机器人有效抓取物体或表面并完成着陆的能力，往往是任务成功的关键。本文提出一种专为空中抓取与着陆操作设计的新型模块化软体抓取器。该模块化气动软体抓取器采用前馈比例控制器调节气压，实现顺应性抓取能力。软指模块化连接器支持4指软体抓取器的两种构型——H型底座与X型底座，可适应不同目标物体。此外，当抓取器放气时，可作为软体起落架使用，从而降低空中操控控制的重量与复杂度，提升飞行效率。通过室内空中抓取实验验证了其有效性，所提出的软体空中飞行器（SAV）最大有效载荷达217克，软体无人机自重为808克。