RAVEN

Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS), EPFL (Switzerland) RAVEN (3)

Not for saleUniversity research prototype, first described in a 2024 Nature paper.

Not for sale (research)Not programmableBird-like legsJump take-offFixed wing

Not for saleShipping: Not for sale. A research prototype that was never sold.

Remote control: Not possible. Research prototype.

EPFL news ↗Nature paper (2024) ↗Paper on arXiv ↗

Overview

RAVEN is a 620 g fixed-wing drone from EPFL with two bird-like legs, built to the size of a carrion crow. Spring-loaded ankles and passive toes let the same legs walk at 0.23 m/s, hop across an 11.5 cm gap and jump onto a 26 cm ledge. To take off it jumps while the propeller spins up, reaching about 2.4 m/s in 0.17 s, so it needs no runway or launcher. The paper found jumping take-off used less energy than a propeller-only start. In the published tests it was flown by radio control.

Specifications

Category	Drones · Fly + drive or walk
Released	2024
Country	Switzerland
Availability	Not for sale (research)
Programmability	No programmability
Built-in autonomy	None / scripted · Moves only when controlled, or plays preset motions
LLM support	None · No built-in LLM and no SDK to connect one.
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	No vision sensors
Actuators	Mixed
Audio	No audio
Compute type	Arduino / ESP32 / microcontroller
Remote control	Not programmable
Size	620 g with legs. 100 cm wingspan, 50 cm long, about the size of a carrion crow.
Drive	One front 8-inch propeller on a T-Motor AT2306 brushless motor, with ailerons and a tail elevator moved by three KST X08H servos. Two bird-like legs, each with hip and ankle joints driven by T-Motor AT2303 brushless motors through planetary gearboxes and belts, plus a spring-loaded ankle and a passive compliant toe.
Compute	Five STM32 B-G431B-ESC1 boards (one main controller, four leg motor controllers on a CAN bus), plus a Seeed XIAO nRF52840 that logs power use.
Vision	None
Lidar	None
Sensors	Current sensor for power logging. No onboard IMU is listed in the paper. Flight tests were tracked with an external motion-capture system.
Runtime	Not published
Speed	Walks at 0.23 m/s. Leaves the ground at about 2.4 m/s in a jumping take-off.
SDK	None public