Drones boosting industrial inspection

“Flybotix addresses the drone-based industrial inspection market. Our solution is centred around our drone, but uses complementary building blocks from third party companies - DJI, FLIR - and other software packages,” explains Samir Bouabdallah, CEO Flybotix.

“The product differentiates through twice the flight time, occlusion-free camera and twice as compact versus competition.”

Most professional multi-rotor drones offer good battery life (~30min), but no possibility to get very close to or inside small spaces.

On the other hand, compact, collision tolerant drones offer indoor operation and close to structures capability, but suffer from occluded images and poor battery life (~10min).

This is a major limitation for industrial inspection companies as they need to fly several times back and forth to swap batteries, leaving a shorter time for the actual mission.

Flybotix secret is a smart combination of multirotor mechanical simplicity, with the aerodynamic efficiency of conventional helicopters, together with advanced control algorithms.

The Flybotix drone is a dual rotor version without any servo motors, even suitable for indoor inspection.

Flybotix will sell its product to inspection service companies, operating in energy and mining industries. Typical companies are Cyberhawk and Sky-futures. Flybotix is collaborating with SGS, the leading inspection firm.

The whole commercial drone market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2022, with the drone based industrial inspection in oil and gas as one of the fastest growing segments at 126% and $1.3 billion.

Professional drone shipments will exceed 600’000 units in 2022, out of which 95% are estimated to cover outdoor applications. The indoor segment might not exceed 30’000 units or 5% of total shipments.

Flybotix aims to ship 300 units by 2021 and 500+ in 2022. This would result in a revenue of almost $10 million revenue in 2022, and represent about 1.5% to 2% of the market share.

The market is heading towards more autonomous operation (for easiness of use and mapping) and more flight time (for more data), with demand dominated by China and USA. Flybotix has established an IP strategy, filled a US provisional patent and is filling one international patent application under the PCT system.

“Our IP matters are managed by a professional IP Attorney office in Lausanne. The first patent protects the core technology of the system for varying the pitch angle of the blades of a propeller during rotation,” notes Samir Bouabdallah

The Flybotix team totalises 40+ years of professional experience. CEO Bouabdallah is a renown drone expert and the main founder of Skybotix (now acquired by GoPro) and CTO Cherpillod, an EPFL engineer, brings year´s of experience from his previous work at SenseFly.

Flybotix team achieved proof of technology, closed pre-seed round, and is working on the proof of concept.

The next big thing in professional drones might well be the interaction with the environment.

Not only through collision tolerance, but also through perching, repair or assembly actions directly in the air. Flybotix is nurturing this vision, and is positing itself as a future player in professional drones able to act on their environment.

Hosted at ESA BIC Switzerland

Flybotix has been selected to be part of the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) Switzerland where they will receive support to further develop and commercialize their drone solution for indoor inspection operations.

Hear Flybotix pitching at the INNOVATION STAGE 19 June 16:00-16:30

Meet the Flybotix entrepreneurs at the PARIS AIR LAB at Paris Air Show 19 June at their stand EXPLORE S9.

PARIS AIR LAB -  Paris Air Show
AN EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO INNOVATION FOR AEROSPACE

After the success of its first edition 2 years ago, Paris Air Lab returns at the heart of the Paris Air Show, in the Concorde hall, with 3,000 m² dedicated to innovation and prospective in the aerospace, an industry decisively open to the future. Mobilities of tomorrow, AI, exploration and environment; Paris Air Lab will focus on major topics in the field.

Spotlight on industrial innovations and startups
Twelve booths are dedicated to 80 new comers: startups from more than 20 countries around the world display their projects and present their work. Discover important innovation programs through 12 collaborative booths around 4 key areas:

- ENABLE, focusing on innovative technologies in the industry
- PROTECT, dedicated to the sustainable aerospace industry
- TRAVEL, focused on the future of aeronautics mobility
- EXPLORE, featuring iconic space missions.

In the heart of Paris Air Lab, the booth «Understanding climate change» shows how planes and satellites contribute to the monitoring of climate change through embedded devices.

ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions

ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions programme has a network of 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres, 15 ESA Innovation Partners and 14 ESA Ambassadors throughout Europe. It co-funds projects and start-ups, while also offering technical and business support to companies that seek to deliver rapid innovation and to raise private investment.

Overall ESA spends €400 million a year on strengthening the competitiveness of European and Canadian companies in the global markets for both satellite communications andr downstream applications.

ESA BICs - World's largest ecosystem for space-related entrepreneurship
The ESA Business Incubation Centre Hessen & Baden-Württemberg was founded in 2007 and it part of the wider network of 20 ESA BICs throughput Europe.

The 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) form the largest ecosystem in the world for space-related entrepreneurship and have fostered over 700 start-ups throughout Europe. Spread across some 60 cities in 17 countries, more than 300 start-ups are currently under the two-year business incubation development booster programme.

The centres offer complete access to all aspects of space-related innovation, technology and intellectual properties and is a gateway to ESA and European space research and developments. Located in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and UK, with more to open, over 700 start-ups have been fostered and another 180 new start-ups are taken in yearly to be supported under the two-years business development booster programme.

Flybotix contact information

Samir Bouabdallah, CEO

Flybotix SA
EPFL Innovation Park Building C
CH 1015 – Lausanne, Switzerland

Mail: flybotix@flybotix.com
Website: https://flybotix.com/