Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have been used in a wide range of applications [1, 2, 3]. However, there are few papers addressing high-speed grasping and transportation of payloads using MAVs. Drawing inspiration from aerial hunting by birds of prey, we design and equip a quadrotor MAV with an actuated appendage enabling grasping and object retrieval at high speeds. We develop a nonlinear dynamic model of the system, demonstrate that the system is differentially flat, plan dynamic trajectories using the flatness property, and present experimental results with pick-up velocities at 2 m/s (6 body lengths/second) and 3 m/s (9 body lengths/second). Finally, the experimental results are compared with observations derived from video footage of a bald eagle swooping down and snatching a fish out of water.
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