WEBVTT - If Birds Can Perch, Why Can't Drones?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.320
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:10.240
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. But when it

0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.920
<v Speaker 1>comes to accomplishing deft aerobatic maneuvers, aerial drones still aren't

0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.520
<v Speaker 1>as good as birds and other flying animals, though engineers

0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.960
<v Speaker 1>are working on it, and they're also working on another

0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.040
<v Speaker 1>avian feet of agility, the ability to land and perch

0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.560
<v Speaker 1>on just about any object or surface, ranging from tree

0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.720
<v Speaker 1>branches to telephone wires without falling off. This is perhaps

0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.360
<v Speaker 1>more complicated than it sounds. A gripping random surfaces is

0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.919
<v Speaker 1>easy for many birds and other animals, including many humans,

0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.040
<v Speaker 1>but it's difficult for robots. Think about how you grip,

0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.559
<v Speaker 1>say a door handle or a coffee cup. You have

0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.400
<v Speaker 1>to figure out where the object is and how wide

0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.280
<v Speaker 1>to open your hand, and how to close your hand

0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.000
<v Speaker 1>around it, and how tightly to close your hand without

0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.360
<v Speaker 1>breaking the handleboard, the cup or breaking your hand for

0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.840
<v Speaker 1>that matter. It's not easy for all humans. Now imagine

0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.360
<v Speaker 1>you were trying to balance on that object that you're gripping.

0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.759
<v Speaker 1>But researchers at Stanford University have developed a device called

0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:18.400
<v Speaker 1>a stereotyped Nature inspired Aerial grasper or SNAG for short

0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.280
<v Speaker 1>that can be attached to a quad copter drone to

0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.080
<v Speaker 1>give it feet and legs resembling those of a falcon.

0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.040
<v Speaker 1>When equipped with the device, the drone is able to

0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.480
<v Speaker 1>not just fly around, but catch and carry objects and

0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:36.200
<v Speaker 1>then perch on various surfaces. Of course, a duplicating the

0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.960
<v Speaker 1>agility of birds wasn't easy to do. The researchers shot

0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.280
<v Speaker 1>video of small parrots flying back and forth between special

0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.680
<v Speaker 1>perches that contained sensors to measure the physical forces of landing, perching,

0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.560
<v Speaker 1>and take off. One of the researchers, William Roderick, explained

0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.360
<v Speaker 1>in the Stanford News release in December. What surprised us

0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.080
<v Speaker 1>was that the birds did the same aerial maneuvers no

0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.920
<v Speaker 1>matter what surface as they were landing on. They let

0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.400
<v Speaker 1>the feet handle the variability and complexity of the surface

0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:12.960
<v Speaker 1>texture itself. Giving a drone similar abilities required technological ingenuity.

0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.200
<v Speaker 1>A snag has a three D printed structure that emulates

0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.240
<v Speaker 1>a falcon's lightweight bones, and each of its legs is

0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.840
<v Speaker 1>equipped with one motor for moving back and forth and

0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.399
<v Speaker 1>a second one for grasping mechanisms in the robots legs

0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.040
<v Speaker 1>are designed to absorb impact energy and passively convert it

0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.080
<v Speaker 1>into grasping force the way that a bird's tendons would.

0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.360
<v Speaker 1>As a result, a drone equipped with the device can

0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.120
<v Speaker 1>clutch something strongly in just twenty milliseconds. Once the robot's

0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.240
<v Speaker 1>feet are wrapped around a perch, its ankles lock, and

0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:48.239
<v Speaker 1>an accelerometer device that measures changes in motion detects the

0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.720
<v Speaker 1>landing and triggers a balancing algorithm to stabilize it on

0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 1>the perch elsewhere. Researchers at other institutions have also been

0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.880
<v Speaker 1>working for years on giving drones the ability to land

0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 1>and hang onto something. For example, in researchers at Northeastern

0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.359
<v Speaker 1>University unveiled a technology that allows a flying drone to

0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.760
<v Speaker 1>hang upside down like a bat. Being able to land

0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.040
<v Speaker 1>in various places helps drones to conserve energy that they

0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.040
<v Speaker 1>would expend by having to remain airborne. That's really useful

0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.040
<v Speaker 1>because the flight time of robotic aircraft is limited by

0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.160
<v Speaker 1>their battery power, and their battery power is in turn

0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:34.359
<v Speaker 1>limited by the weight that the aircraft can carry. Today's

0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.360
<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article Robotic drones can now fly,

0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.119
<v Speaker 1>stop and perch just like birds on how Stuff Works

0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.840
<v Speaker 1>dot Com, written by Patrick J. Tiger brain Stuff is

0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:44.920
<v Speaker 1>production of I heart Radio in partnership with how stuff

0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.480
<v Speaker 1>works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four

0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.400
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the heart radio app,

0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.200
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.