Systems and methods for a soft-bodied aerial robot for collision resilience and contact-reactive perching

A robot, comprising:

• a pneumatic assembly;
• a frame balloon mounted along a chassis and including a plurality of frame members in fluid flow communication with the pneumatic assembly, the pneumatic assembly being operable for modulating an internal pressure of the plurality of frame members of the frame balloon in response to one or more frame control signals;
• a perching assembly coupled to the chassis, the perching assembly including a grasper including a bistable spring element including a concave face and a convex face, the bistable spring element being configurable between a first open state and a second curled state;
• and
• a processing element in communication with the pneumatic assembly and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing element to:
• generate, based on information captured by one or more sensors, one or more frame control signals for application to the pneumatic assembly for modulating an internal pressure to decrease a stiffness of the plurality of frame members such that the plurality of frame members deflect upon contact between the grasper and a perching structure during a perching sequence to compensate for an external wrench force generated upon impact between the grasper and the perching structure during transitioning of the bistable spring element from the first open state to the second curled state.