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Meet RAVEN, the fixed-wing drone with mechanical bird-like legs

Compared to traditional fixed winged drones, RAVEN can easily land and take off in areas with uneven surfaces.

The RAVEN drone can walk and hop as well. (Image Source: IEEE Spectrum/YouTube)

Drone technology has seen rapid improvement in the last few years, changing the way we discover the world and fight wars. Now, researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and UC Irvine are testing a new drone with fixed wings and mechanical bird-like legs.

Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments, or RAVEN for short can easily take off and land in areas where traditional fixed-wing aircraft cannot. Researchers say the bird-like legs also allow it to walk around, jump over obstacles and even make a jump in the air to take flight.

While quadcopters like the ones from DJI are smaller and more flexible, they often rely on four motors which are not as powerful as fixed-wing drones, which are usually powered by a single motor used to glide in the air. In a report published in Nature earlier this week, researchers said they took inspiration from birds like crows and ravens.

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The drone uses a combination of springs and motors that aim to simulate “”powerful avian tendons and muscles” and even has “two articulated structures” which act as a toe. These artificial toes not only prevent the drone from falling on its face but also help in things like walking and take off.

These legs are not as complicated as bird legs, but their biological design allows RAVEN to move around in a bird-like way. According to IEEE Spectrum, the drone has a 100-centimeter wingspan with a body length of 50 cm. It can also walk a distance of one meter in four seconds and jump over gaps that are as wide as 12 cm.

Compared to traditional fixed winged drones, which fail to land in areas with smooth surfaces and require a sort of runway to take off, RAVEN can operate in areas where it humans cannot go, all the while using lesser power than quadcopters.

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