This paper presents a crawling mechanism using a soft-tentacle gripper integrated into an
unmanned aerial vehicle for pipe inspection in industrial environments. The objective was to allow
the aerial robot to perch and crawl along the pipe, minimizing the energy consumption, and allowing
to perform contact inspection. This paper introduces the design of the soft limbs of the gripper and
also the internal mechanism that allows movement along pipes. Several tests have been carried out
to ensure the grasping capability on the pipe and the performance and reliability of the developed
system. This paper shows the complete development of the system using additive manufacturing
techniques and includes the results of experiments performed in realistic environments.Unión Europea SI-1762/23/201