Why does this drone need eagle’s claws? There are engineers from Stanford behind SNAG

Engineers at Stanford University boasted about their latest creation, which draws a lot from nature. We are talking about a drone with the SNAG system, which has got eagle’s claws. Thanks to them … exactly – why was SNAG created?

Thanks to the SNAG system, the drone received real eagle’s claws

The answer to this question is provided by the extension of the name of the system itself, because SNAG is an acronym from Stereotyped Nature-inspired Aerial Grasper, which can be simply translated into a stereotypical nature-inspired air grapple. SNAG is not a drone in itself, because it comes down to artificial claws, the design of which was inspired by the natural “equipment” of birds. In this way, scientists wanted to transform the possibilities of birds to land in any place within the framework of biomimicry.

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SNAG consists of motors and cables that perform the functions of muscles and tendons in turn. The associated “artificial leg” absorbs the impact on landing, recognizes it, and causes the claws to snap around an object (implicitly a branch) within 20 milliseconds. Then the accelerometer records that the drone has stopped and the balancing algorithm stabilizes it, the effectiveness of which has been proven in practical tests in the forest under various conditions.

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SNAG tests have even shown that these sensitive claws can catch objects that are thrown at them, such as bean bags or tennis balls. That’s why the team says SNAG systems could potentially increase the range and capabilities of drones for transporting items. They could also be useful in terms of e.g. tearing them out.