{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T12:03:54Z","timestamp":1780056234712,"version":"3.54.0"},"reference-count":73,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]],"date-time":"2022-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1667347200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["IIS-1724341 IIS-1901379 IIS-1910087"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IIS-1724341 IIS-1901379 IIS-1910087"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100019923","name":"DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["W911NF-18-1-0266"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["W911NF-18-1-0266"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100019923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000006","name":"Office of Naval Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["N00014-18-1-2252"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N00014-18-1-2252"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000006","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Robot. AI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This work focuses on catching safely an aerial micro-robot in mid-air using another aerial robot that is equipped with a universal soft gripper. To avoid aerodynamic disturbances such as downwash, that would push the target robot away, we follow a horizontal grasping approach. To this end, the article introduces a gripper design based on soft actuators that can stay horizontally straight with a single fixture and maintain sufficiently compliance in order to bend when air pressure is applied. Further, we develop the Soft Aerial Gripper (SoAG), an open-source aerial robot equipped with the developed soft end-effector and that features an onboard pneumatic regulation system. Experimental results show that the developed low-cost soft gripper has fast opening and closing responses despite being powered by lightweight air pumps, responses that are comparable to those of a commercially available end-effector tested we test against. Static grasping tests study the soft gripper\u2019s robustness in capturing aerial micro-robots under aerodynamic disturbances. We experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of using the SoAG robot to catch a hovering micro-robot with or without propeller guards. The feasibility of dynamic catching is also shown by capturing a moving aerial micro-robot with a velocity of 0.2\u00a0m\/s. The free flight performance of the SoAG robot is studied against a conventional quadrotor and in different gripper and payload status.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2022.1030515","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]],"date-time":"2022-11-02T09:12:26Z","timestamp":1667380346000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Safely catching aerial micro-robots in mid-air using an open-source aerial robot with soft gripper"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Zhichao","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caio","family":"Mucchiani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Keran","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Konstantinos","family":"Karydis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Raptor: Rapid aerial pickup and transport of objects by robots","author":"Appius","year":"2022"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1109\/MCS.2014.2320359","article-title":"The flight assembled architecture installation: Cooperative construction with flying machines","volume":"34","author":"Augugliaro","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Control Syst. Mag."},{"key":"B3","first-page":"4680","article-title":"Experiments on behavioral coordinated control of an unmanned aerial vehicle manipulator system","author":"Baizid","year":"2015"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-12945-3_3","volume-title":"Helicopter based aerial manipulators aerial robotic manipulation","author":"Bejar","year":"2019"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3929\/ethz-a-009970340","article-title":"Nonlinear quadrocopter attitude control: Technical report","author":"Brescianini","year":"2013","journal-title":"Tech. Rep. ETH Zurich"},{"key":"B6","first-page":"1991","article-title":"Modeling and adaptive controlling of quadrotor uav with flexible gripper","author":"Chen","year":""},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10009","DOI":"10.1109\/lra.2022.3192652","article-title":"Aerial grasping and the velocity sufficiency region","volume":"7","author":"Chen","year":"","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"B8","first-page":"1","article-title":"A parallel manipulator for mobile manipulating uavs","author":"Danko","year":"2015"},{"key":"B9","first-page":"974","article-title":"A hyper-redundant manipulator for mobile manipulating unmanned aerial vehicles","author":"Danko","year":"2013"},{"key":"B10","unstructured":"Drogone autonomous counter drone systems2022"},{"key":"B11","unstructured":"Dronecatcher a delft dynamics product2022"},{"key":"B12","first-page":"261","article-title":"Dronetrap: Drone catching in midair by soft robotic hand with color-based force detection and hand gesture recognition","author":"Fedoseev","year":"2021"},{"key":"B13","first-page":"1027","article-title":"An intelligent gripper design for autonomous aerial transport with passive magnetic grasping and dual-impulsive release","author":"Fiaz","year":"2018"},{"key":"B14","first-page":"4214","article-title":"Dynamic grasping with a\u201d soft\u201d drone: From theory to practice","author":"Fishman","year":"2021"},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1109\/mra.2013.2287454","article-title":"Developing an aerial manipulator prototype: Physical interaction with the environment","volume":"21","author":"Fumagalli","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"B16","first-page":"7024","article-title":"A flying gripper based on cuboid modular robots","author":"Gabrich","year":"2018"},{"key":"B17","first-page":"4692","article-title":"Towards model-predictive control for aerial pick-and-place","author":"Garimella","year":"2015"},{"key":"B18","first-page":"4645","article-title":"Autonomous indoor aerial gripping using a quadrotor","author":"Ghadiok","year":"2011"},{"key":"B19","first-page":"7838","article-title":"Methods for autonomous wristband placement with a search-and-rescue aerial manipulator","author":"G\u00f3mez-de Gabriel","year":"2018"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1485","DOI":"10.3182\/20110828-6-it-1002.03178","article-title":"Quadrocopter trajectory generation and control","volume":"44","author":"Hehn","year":"2011","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."},{"key":"B21","first-page":"4916","article-title":"Control of an aerial robot with multi-link arm for assembly tasks","author":"Jimenez-Cano","year":"2013"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3860","DOI":"10.1109\/lra.2019.2929993","article-title":"Analysis of ground effect for small-scale uavs in forward flight","volume":"4","author":"Kan","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"B23","first-page":"33","article-title":"Uncertainty quantification for small robots using principal orthogonal decomposition","author":"Karydis","year":"2016"},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20160088","DOI":"10.1098\/rsfs.2016.0088","article-title":"Energetics in robotic flight at small scales","volume":"7","author":"Karydis","year":"2017","journal-title":"Interface focus"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1278","DOI":"10.1177\/0278364915576336","article-title":"Probabilistically valid stochastic extensions of deterministic models for systems with uncertainty","volume":"34","author":"Karydis","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Robotics Res."},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"eaar2915","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aar2915","article-title":"An origami-inspired, self-locking robotic arm that can be folded flat","volume":"3","author":"Kim","year":"2018","journal-title":"Sci. Robot."},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1912","DOI":"10.1109\/tmech.2016.2523602","article-title":"Vision-guided aerial manipulation using a multirotor with a robotic arm","volume":"21","author":"Kim","year":"2016","journal-title":"Ieee. ASME. Trans. Mechatron."},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"717","DOI":"10.1002\/rob.21772","article-title":"Autonomous recovery of a fixed-wing uav using a net suspended by two multirotor uavs","volume":"35","author":"Klausen","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Field Robot."},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.5772\/53754","article-title":"Closed-loop behavior of an autonomous helicopter equipped with a robotic arm for aerial manipulation tasks","volume":"10","author":"Kondak","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Robotic Syst."},{"key":"B30","first-page":"3411","article-title":"Towards valve turning using a dual-arm aerial manipulator","author":"Korpela","year":"2014"},{"key":"B31","first-page":"4922","article-title":"Dynamic stability of a mobile manipulating unmanned aerial vehicle","author":"Korpela","year":"2013"},{"key":"B32","first-page":"656","article-title":"Energy efficiency of trajectory generation methods for stop-and-go aerial robot navigation","author":"Kreciglowa","year":"2017"},{"key":"B33","first-page":"1","article-title":"A hybrid, actively compliant manipulator\/gripper for aerial manipulation with a multicopter","author":"Kruse","year":"2018"},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"887","DOI":"10.1109\/lra.2021.3052420","article-title":"Closed-structure compliant gripper with morphologically optimized multi-material fingertips for aerial grasping","volume":"6","author":"Lee","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"B35","first-page":"5420","article-title":"Geometric tracking control of a quadrotor uav on se (3)","author":"Lee","year":"2010"},{"key":"B36","first-page":"1708","article-title":"Position control and variable-height trajectory tracking of a soft pneumatic legged robot","author":"Liu","year":""},{"key":"B37","first-page":"183","article-title":"Toward impact-resilient quadrotor design, collision characterization and recovery control to sustain flight after collisions","author":"Liu","year":""},{"key":"B38","first-page":"420","article-title":"Sorx: A soft pneumatic hexapedal robot to traverse rough, steep, and unstable terrain","author":"Liu","year":"2020"},{"key":"B39","first-page":"5602","article-title":"A passive closing, tendon driven, adaptive robot hand for ultra-fast, aerial grasping and perching","author":"McLaren","year":"2019"},{"key":"B40","first-page":"6235","article-title":"Px4: A node-based multithreaded open source robotics framework for deeply embedded platforms","author":"Meier","year":"2015"},{"key":"B41","first-page":"2520","article-title":"Minimum snap trajectory generation and control for quadrotors","author":"Mellinger","year":"2011"},{"key":"B42","first-page":"2668","article-title":"Design, modeling, estimation and control for aerial grasping and manipulation","author":"Mellinger","year":"2011"},{"key":"B43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"739173","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2021.739173","article-title":"On aerial robots with grasping and perching capabilities: A comprehensive review","volume":"8","author":"Meng","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front. Robot. AI"},{"key":"B44","first-page":"461","article-title":"A net-launching mechanism for uav to capture aerial moving target","author":"Meng","year":"2018"},{"key":"B45","first-page":"9","article-title":"Design and control of a hexacopter with soft grasper for autonomous object detection and grasping","author":"Mishra","year":"2018"},{"key":"B46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1002\/rob.21774","article-title":"Fast, autonomous flight in gps-denied and cluttered environments","volume":"35","author":"Mohta","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Field Robot."},{"key":"B47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2163","DOI":"10.1002\/adfm.201303288","article-title":"Pneumatic networks for soft robotics that actuate rapidly","volume":"24","author":"Mosadegh","year":"2014","journal-title":"Adv. Funct. Mat."},{"key":"B48","first-page":"6","article-title":"Closed-loop position control of a pediatric soft robotic wearable device for upper extremity assistance","author":"Mucchiani","year":"2022"},{"key":"B49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"42635","DOI":"10.1109\/access.2021.3065926","article-title":"Survey on anti-drone systems: Components, designs, and challenges","volume":"9","author":"Park","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"B50","first-page":"1512","article-title":"Towards a soft pneumatic glove for hand rehabilitation","author":"Polygerinos","year":"2013"},{"key":"B51","first-page":"2491","article-title":"Grasping from the air: Hovering capture and load stability","author":"Pounds","year":""},{"key":"B52","first-page":"99","article-title":"Practical aerial grasping of unstructured objects","author":"Pounds","year":""},{"key":"B53","first-page":"250","article-title":"Downwash-aware trajectory planning for large quadrotor teams","author":"Preiss","year":"2017"},{"key":"B54","first-page":"5832","article-title":"Autonomous landing on pipes using soft gripper for inspection and maintenance in outdoor environments","author":"Ramon-Soria","year":"2019"},{"key":"B55","first-page":"649","volume-title":"Polynomial trajectory planning for aggressive quadrotor flight in dense indoor environments Robotics research","author":"Richter","year":"2016"},{"key":"B56","first-page":"4972","article-title":"Cooperative quadrocopter ball throwing and catching","author":"Ritz","year":"2012"},{"key":"B57","volume-title":"Autonomous aerial robot for high-speed search and intercept applications","author":"Rodriguez-Ramos","year":"2021"},{"key":"B58","first-page":"126","article-title":"A concept for catching drones with a net carried by cooperative uavs","author":"Rothe","year":"2019"},{"key":"B59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1957","DOI":"10.1109\/lra.2018.2808541","article-title":"Aerial manipulation: A literature review","volume":"3","author":"Ruggiero","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"B60","first-page":"4014","article-title":"A multilayer control for multirotor uavs equipped with a servo robot arm","author":"Ruggiero","year":"2015"},{"key":"B61","first-page":"200","article-title":"Aerial regrasping: Pivoting with transformable multilink aerial robot","author":"Shi","year":"2020"},{"key":"B62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1707035","DOI":"10.1002\/adma.201707035","article-title":"Soft robotic grippers","volume":"30","author":"Shintake","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adv. Mat."},{"key":"B63","first-page":"2269","article-title":"Geometric control and differential flatness of a quadrotor uav with a cable-suspended load","author":"Sreenath","year":"2013"},{"key":"B64","first-page":"6997","article-title":"Towards a flying assistant paradigm: The othex","author":"Staub","year":"2018"},{"key":"B65","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/tmech.2022.3143095","article-title":"How to swoop and grasp like a bird with a passive claw for a high-speed grasping","volume":"5","author":"Stewart","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ieee. ASME. Trans. Mechatron."},{"key":"B66","first-page":"1778","article-title":"Lightweight and human-size dual arm aerial manipulator","author":"Suarez","year":"2017"},{"key":"B67","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"051007","DOI":"10.1115\/1.4032250","article-title":"Aggressive flight with quadrotors for perching on inclined surfaces","volume":"8","author":"Thomas","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Mech. Robotics"},{"key":"B68","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2349","DOI":"10.1017\/s0263574721001673","article-title":"Design and integration of a drone based passive manipulator for capturing flying targets","volume":"40","author":"Vidyadhara","year":"2022","journal-title":"Robotica"},{"key":"B69","first-page":"870","article-title":"Design, identification and experimental testing of a light-weight flexible-joint arm for aerial physical interaction","author":"Y\u00fcksel","year":"2015"},{"key":"B70","first-page":"1681","article-title":"Grasp a moving target from the air: System & control of an aerial manipulator","author":"Zhang","year":"2018"},{"key":"B71","first-page":"1248","article-title":"Compliant bistable gripper for aerial perching and grasping","author":"Zhang","year":"2019"},{"key":"B72","first-page":"5175","article-title":"Whole-body aerial manipulation by transformable multirotor with two-dimensional multilinks","author":"Zhao","year":"2017"},{"key":"B73","first-page":"1","article-title":"The deformable quad-rotor enabled and wasp-pedal-carrying inspired aerial gripper","author":"Zhao","year":"2018"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Robotics and AI"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2022.1030515\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]],"date-time":"2022-11-02T09:12:38Z","timestamp":1667380358000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2022.1030515\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]]},"references-count":73,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/frobt.2022.1030515"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frobt.2022.1030515","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,2]]},"article-number":"1030515"}}