As a drone operator and firm proprietor myself, that signifies that I’m at all times looking for methods to extend my revenue margins for my drone enterprise.
A key a part of that is discovering the very best drone on the lowest value, however that has at all times come on the expense of flight time. As a result of there are at present solely two choices.
- Choice 1: a less expensive industrial drone at about $12k (and above) to get any form of payload capability as much as 5 lbs and possibly half-hour of flight time.
- After which Choice 2: a industrial drone that makes use of unique supplies (and designs) for rather more flight time – maybe over an hour – however I have to fork over $50k to $100k+.
Choice 1 has at all times been the manageable alternative – regardless of all its inherent issues. Sure, I’ll purchase the additional batteries. I’ll fly backwards and forwards from the job website shedding time to swap batteries. I’ll monitor and cost batteries in my workplace and in my SUV – and wherever I can discover a plug – in order that I’m not in panic mode on the job website fearful about whether or not I’ve sufficient batteries to finish the job.
I’ll even purchase a number of drones and have achieved so often. Sure, I’m incurring prices (which additionally damage my revenue margins) nevertheless it nonetheless has been higher than the upfront value of Choice 2.
The co-founders of Modovolo, Erik, CTO, and Justin, CEO, have skilled the identical ache. Erik is an aerospace engineer, and former USAF Captain, however most significantly for the final 5 years, he’s been a industrial drone pilot. He noticed the identical points with Choice 1 and Choice 2 and he acknowledged the core issues with each.
“I noticed that the explanation for brief flight occasions in drones is their fixed-hub design. There’s a variety of redundant and extreme construction. That provides a variety of weight. And the propeller design and the the electrical motor RPMs are very inefficient. Whenever you add these issues collectively, it interprets to quick flight time.”
I’ve had related ideas. Drone design actually hasn’t developed that a lot because the daybreak of drones over 15 years in the past.
However Erik went one step additional.
Erik explains, “Why do I want to purchase a brand new drone for every utility? It was driving me nuts. I simply spent $12k on a drone that might carry 5 lbs of payload solely to search out out later that for one more job the payload was 7 lbs. However this meant I wanted to spend one other $18k to get a drone only for that payload. It’s completely loopy. Take into consideration if Dell required that we purchase one pc for phrase processing and one other pc for spreadsheets. We might by no means conform to that. Why can we conform to this for drones?”
I feel we’ve all had these related ideas nevertheless it’s not clear how you can repair all of those issues with present drone design.
Justin feedback, “We knew we needed to re-think drone design from the underside up. A whole departure from what has been achieved so far. We additionally knew that, to get the associated fee down – means down – we would have liked to keep away from not solely costly supplies but in addition something that will complicate the manufacturing course of.”
That is the place the hero enters the story, the bicycle wheel.
Erik explains, “We constructed many, many, many prototypes and nothing was working. We weren’t getting the breakthrough lightness we wished in order that we might obtain superb flight occasions. That’s when the proverbial mild bulb went off. I noticed that the bicycle wheel had all of the traits we would have liked. Gentle, robust, and rugged. It’s actually an underappreciated technological marvel and nobody had ever thought to make use of it in aerospace.”
That is additionally the place the Lego idea was born.
Erik continues, “We subsequent realized that the bicycle wheel had yet one more profit. It meant that we have been not constrained to at least one design. You may join them collectively in any configuration you need for the mission at hand. Want extra thrust to carry a heavier payload or want extra flight time? Simply add extra Raise Pods.”
After 2 ½ years of improvement and submitting a bunch of patents to guard all features of the Raise Pod and the modularity idea, the group got here out of stealth mode simply this March 2024 and launched a pre-order web site.
“We’re within the technique of getting our first manufacturing manufacturing cell arrange and we’re providing a restricted run of 200 pre-orders. These clients will get assured manufacturing precedence, particular entry to our engineering group, a restricted version modovolo t-shirt, and get to direct what sorts of Utility Pods we’ll construct first.” Justin states.
You may go to modovolo.com to be taught extra and get your pre-order at present.
