nir-vana innovation network

Drones have expanded from military operations to performing a broad range of civilian applications. Modern advancements in hardware and software technologies allow the development of smaller, easier to control, and lower cost systems. However, the implementation of UAS includes several difficulties such as flight stability, control accuracy, and safety. One of the barriers for UAS is payload versus flight time. The payload capacity, energy source and flight time are linked through design trade-offs that can be optimized for efficiency and flexibility. The challenge is to keep the UAS and its payload airborne for the longest time possible while they conduct their task.

The Spanish SME was born in 2016 with the aim of investigating how UASs could help in fire-fighting tasks, minimizing human risk and the spread of fires. It has since leveraged its experience and know-how to develop a family of light aircraft to cover inspection, surveillance and data production needs with advanced autonomy and payload performance. These capacities give the company a competitive advantage in the market.
Its team includes now 29 professionals working in the manufacture and commercialization of UAS with unique features that aim to solve heavy load challenges.

To date, the companies has been able to develop a family of drones. Readiness for mass production for the mentioned products varies from 100 to 40%. A detailed portfolio with showcases is provided on request.

Here it is summarized all UASs that the company is developing, classified from lower to higher payload capacity:

- Light Aircrafts: Unmanned helicopter with industrial performance that offers multiple professional solutions such as: surveillance, inspection, data production or monitoring. This product is ready for its commercialization. Aircraft manufacturing is carried out by the company itself which ensure final product quality.

- Medium aircrafts: The company has a family of medium-sized aircraft in development that is distinguished by adapting to meet different missions and cargo needs. It is in the development phase, with a commercialization forecast for 4T 2021, offering a load weight of 18 Kg and a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 50 Kg.

-Heavy aircrafts. This project aimed to develop an aircraft with an MTOW of more than 400 kilos, with a flight autonomy time of more than 1 hour and with a payload capacity of 200 kilos. Now, the company is developing and testing this project in order to reduce the weight to the maximum, guaranteeing rigidity and safety coefficients. Commercialization forecast is 2T2023.

Furthermore, the company is developing a pioneering platform, a heavy-duty multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), which uses proprietary technology with which it overcomes the limitations of the current offer of these products regarding load capacity and flight autonomy. This solution will be capable of carrying 600 litres in a typical 30-minute mission, covering an area of 2,000m2, with an elapse time between one launch and another of 20 minutes. Commercialization forecast is 2T2023.

To date, the company has been co-financed by different public and private entities such H2020 SME Instrument Phase I and II. Currently, they have managed to participate in several projects with Spanish publics organizations which are being used to prove light aircrafts technical viability.
Apart from the public funding the company offers € 3.5 million in equity to private investment. To cover this offer, a first €1M investment round will be held during 2021. It´s principal aim is to devote 70% to recruitment and 30% to commercials. A second round of funds will be dedicated to cover final assembly line, equipment and specific industrial supplies.
Therefore, the company is currently looking for a financial agreement, with partners interested in investing in a promising technology.

Advantages & innovations

This is the only company specifically focusing on drones with high payload capacity. The company is working on a continuous improvement of the products, with cutting-edge features that allow a positioning and differentiation with respect to other solutions in the market. The offered systems have several advantages: • Modular architecture: The engineering of the aircraft rises to a modular platform that allows to transport the different modules in a standard container and to set up the platform in less than 1 hour from the opening of the container to a fully operational situation. • Combustion engines: The use of thermal motors removes current market barriers that generally use electric power sources. • Performance optimization: The company is developing an intake pressure increase system to avoid thermal engine loss of performance with height. • Mission control: This development can be divided into several lines of action: analysis of intelligent systems and autonomous navigation, analysis of control systems and automatic inspection processes, design and development of the intelligent control system, and automatic control and inspection architecture based on vision by computer and sensors combined, design and development of computer vision algorithms, real-time data acquisition and processing algorithms, and automatic control algorithms; and design and development of mission coordination algorithms with various drones in swarm mode. • Attitude control: The proposed solution uses aerodynamic control surfaces that allow very fast electrical control, complemented with a redundant emergency system called cross hybrid, patented by the company.

Stage of development

Available for demonstration

Partner sought

The company seeks to consolidate its activity and presence in the market in order to establish itself as the company of reference in the segment of drones with high cargo capacity. Therefore, the company seeks for investors under a financial agreement that can support with business development. The partner's role can also be to provide support for market entry.