Accepted to IEEE/RSJ IROS 2026

Grasping as Anchoring: Expanding Urban Perching with a Hybrid Gripper for Aerial Robots

Ziyin Han, Bihao Mo, Sheng Cheng, Rong Wang, Ziyi Wang, Junjie Gao, Hung Tien Pham, Van Anh Ho, and Naira Hovakimyan

Download PDF Watch Videos
Perching demonstrations and autonomy pipeline overview.

Abstract

Aerial manipulation demands end-effectors that can support both grasping and perching. Existing designs often split between compliant grippers that adapt to objects but lack perching stiffness, and stiff perching mechanisms that are tied to narrow target geometries. We present a hybrid aerial manipulation system that decouples the anchoring load path from a compliant grasping interface, allowing manipulable objects to serve as anchoring interfaces for urban perching.

The system embeds a coaxial eye-in-hand camera for zero-parallax terminal alignment and uses an L1 adaptive controller for robust flight under aerodynamic and payload disturbances. Experiments demonstrate grasping of everyday objects, perching on diverse pole geometries, and stop-sign perching through a graspable adapter.

Mechanics

Decoupled Load Paths

A rigid exoskeleton carries perching loads while the ROSE membrane remains compliant for grasping.

Perception

Coaxial Visual Servoing

An embedded downward camera aligns sensing with the gripper axis through terminal contact.

Capability

Perch-While-Grasping

The robot grasps an adapter, transports it, and uses it to perch on a thin stop-sign edge.

Videos

Pole Perching

Autonomous terminal alignment and perching on pole-head targets.

Object Grasping

Transport-and-release with everyday payloads of varied shape and mass.

Stop-Sign Perching

Two-stage adapter grasping followed by perching on a thin sign edge.

Selected Figures

Engineering drawing of the coaxial hybrid gripper.
Coaxial hybrid gripper with a rigid exoskeleton and embedded camera.
Examples of urban perching targets and sign perching.
Urban fixtures and sign edges enabled by graspable anchoring interfaces.
Torque experiment comparing hybrid and soft grippers.
The hybrid gripper sustains higher off-center torque through the rigid shell.
Pole head geometries used in experiments.
Landing-pole head geometries used for perching experiments.
Aerial grasping demonstrations with diverse objects.
Transport-and-release with diverse objects along an identical trajectory.

Citation

@misc{han2026grasping,
  title = {Grasping as Anchoring: Expanding Urban Perching with a Hybrid Gripper for Aerial Robots},
  author = {Han, Ziyin and Mo, Bihao and Cheng, Sheng and Wang, Rong and Wang, Ziyi and Gao, Junjie and Pham, Hung Tien and Ho, Van Anh and Hovakimyan, Naira},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Accepted to IEEE/RSJ IROS 2026}
}