Okay, despite my Kickstarter scepticism, I'm totally backing this one:
Mantis is a beautifully engineered lightweight accessory which allows your quad or drone to automatically grab and lift small objects. Use it to salvage lost or hard-to-reach items, or simply when your TV remote is all the way over at the other side of the room! The design requires no power source or actuators and grabs automatically when lowered onto an object, simply by virtue of an elegant mechanism. Five talons move independently to accommodate objects of many different shapes and profiles.
Three different models of the claw are available:
Ultra-light: Lightweight, high strength aluminium alloy components with self-lubricating polymer joints, and a tough Kevlar chord. Weighing in at under 20 grams. Can lift up to a kilogram (IF YOUR DRONE IS UP TO IT).
Hardcore SS: Only the best. Same beautifully lightened structure but made from shiny Sheffield Stainless with classic brass joints and a practically unbreakable Kevlar cord. Flameproof, chemical proof, water proof and rust proof. If for any reason you ever needed to use a drone to pick up a 2kg burning hot coal, covered in acid, in a toil of ocean spray; with this you could. Weighs in at around 70 grams.
The Sheffield Star: Beautifully hand crafted by the inventor himself. Only the finest quality Sheffield Stainless components, hand assembled and finished with gleaming sterling silver plate. Complete with display cabinet and letter of appraisal. Don't use it. It's too pretty.
Comments
It's mid-December now. Any new development on this exciting project?
I'd be a more than willing test pilot.
Quad claw machine, anyone?
You speak of "The Claw" with great reverence..
It's a 'simple' mechanical design, and they already have a 100% working prototype they wish to mass produce.This is the type of project that works very well on kickstarter.
On the other hand. The moment a project starts talking of grand plans for some fantastic functionality in the future, based on technology that somehow will be invented once they have the money. There is a high chance you will get burned.