Researchers put bird legs on a drone so it can take off by jumping. EPFL’s RAVEN is a fixed-wing drone that can take off without a runway using bird-inspired legs.

Studying the flapping flight of birds is another area I'd like to explore. Adding flapping wings to a robot like RAVEN would enhance flight agility and provide more opportunities to study bird ...

Scientists in Switzerland have built a revolutionary robot raven that leaps into flight like a bird. They hope that one day the design could eliminate the need for runways for small fixed-wing ...

Another modification that’s on the way for RAVEN is foldable wings that the robot will use to squeeze through tight spaces. “Flapping wings would also be a very interesting topic.

With legs and wings, the RAVEN can take off with no runway, and even hop along the ground. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works ...

In indoor tests, RAVEN could jump almost half a metre into the air and at 2.4 metres per second – which is a similar speed to birds of the same size – at which point a propeller takes over.

Inspired by the proportions of bird legs (and lengthy observations of crows on EPFL's campus), Shin designed a set of custom, multifunctional avian legs for a fixed-wing drone.

And while it may look like a flapping-wing robot, it actually flies via a combination of two semi-fixed wings and a propeller. RAVEN's real selling point, though, is its multi-jointed legs.