Watch this robot bird use a talon-like claw to land safely on a perch

A talon-like claw with sharp ends and a softer center helps this flying robotic grasp onto skinny perches similar to a hen

By Alex Wilkins

This bird-like robotic has a claw that it might use to perch on branches it has flown to. It might doubtlessly be helpful for gathering samples in hard-to-reach locations or silently observing animals of their pure habitat.

Landing and perching on a department is straightforward for many birds, however it is vitally troublesome for robots that fly like birds due to their bigger measurement and the complexity of touchdown on a skinny object.

Now, Raphael Zufferey on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues have developed a robotic hen – which has a 1.5-metre wingspan …