Flyability

Born of Switzerland’s prestigious EPFL, Flyability is the pioneer of confined space access and surveying thanks to its elite drone solutions. Flyability’s co-founders, CEO Patrick Thévoz and CTO Dr Adrien Briod, were inspired to find a solution to gathering data in dangerous environments after witnessing the 2011 Fukushima Daichi disaster, where limited safe access made crisis response almost impossible.

Over a decade later, Flyability continues to develop cutting-edge robotic solutions for inspecting, mapping, and digitising the most extreme environments, from stopes in underground mines to penstocks in hydropower plants.

Flyability is at the forefront of innovation and consistently introduces new features to its robotic platforms, the Elios drones, which are the first of their kind. Flyability’s cross-industry success is built on the adaptability of the Elios models, and the flagship Elios 3 is built on the lessons learned from its predecessors, the Elios 1 and Elios 2.

The underground workhorse drone: Elios 3

At its core, the Elios 3 was designed to accomplish Flyability’s mission: no more humans doing dangerous jobs. By sending the Elios 3 into challenging environments such as old workings or inside crushers, humans no longer have to be exposed to the risks of unknown or confined environments.

Inspired by nature, the Elios 3 is unlike any drone you’ve ever seen. Its creator, Dr Adrien Briod, looked to nature, specifically bees, to design a drone that could withstand collisions and recover without falling out of the air.

Unique in the drone sector, this solution remains a game-changing innovation. The Elios 3, thanks to a combination of its flexible, protective cage and custom firmware, can recognise impact and right itself, meaning that even when it is flown beyond the visual line of sight, the pilot can be confident the drone will stay airborne. It is designed to fly indoors, underground, and in the dark, out of the reach of GPS.

To empower the drone to operate in extremes, it has a modular payload bay and custom sensors that empower optimal data collection and situational awareness. The Elios 3 carries a visual inspection payload, including a 4K video feed and an overlaid thermal camera, illuminated with 16,000 lumens of lighting.

In addition, the drone uses a LiDAR sensor and a custom SLAM algorithm to keep the drone stable in flight and simultaneously capture 3D models of its surroundings. The result? The Elios 3 can create 3D models of a space it flies into, with any points of interest spotted with the camera saved within that model to show exactly where a defect or observation is.

This simultaneous data collection is enhanced when additional payloads are mounted, including an ultrasonic thickness probe, flammable gas sensor, and radiation detection gauge.

Saving months of shutdown with ten minutes of flight

The Elios 3’s ability to fly safely into otherwise inaccessible spaces makes it an invaluable asset for mining operations, whether to inspect equipment, measure stockpiles in processing plants, or survey tunnels and stopes.

The sheer ease of access and total data coverage with the drone, due to it being a remote inspection tool, cannot be overstated. Mines have seen data collection for surveys improve by 125% with the Elios 3, or cut ore pass inspections from eight hours to just 20 minutes.

It’s a tool for both routine inspections and emergency response. One of Flyability’s most famous use cases is when the drone was brought in to an underground mine that had been unable to use an orepass for two months due to a hang-up.

Efforts to locate and dislodge the hangup had been entirely unsuccessful, despite attempts with drilling holes and using CMS scanners, sewer cameras, and pieces of PVC loaded with ANFO. The raise remained clogged.

A member of the team suggested bringing in a drone, and the Elios 3 was brought on-site. In a 10min flight, they had a full 3D scan of the orepass, including the exact location and size of the hangup, allowing them to accurately understand its nature and size.

They were able to plan an effective blast strategy and successfully dislodge the blockage and return the ore pass to use. Without the Elios 3, that ore pass may have remained clogged for months longer.

A new drone era: Automation, AI, and software

The integration of automation and AI with drones is an obvious next step and is being pursued by drone manufacturers across the industry. Flyability has developed a unique collection of automated features that use custom machine learning algorithms to empower the drone in extreme environments.

This began with ‘Return to Signal’, a failsafe that kicks in when the drone loses connection, which guides the drone to return along the same trajectory to reestablish the signal from the remote controller. What followed was the exciting Smart Return to Home, where the drone uses its LiDAR scan to analyse its environment and select its own route back to the pilot at the end of an inspection, moving quickly and safely through the space without pilot guidance. However, the pilot can always intervene if they notice something they’d like to investigate further.

Now, the Elios 3 also boasts the fully autonomous ‘Repeat Inspection’ capability, whereby it can repeat the exact same flight trajectory, including inspecting the same points of interest with identical camera angles and lighting, so inspectors can track changes and progress. These flights can be repeated hours, days, or months apart, with the pilot monitoring the drone’s solo flight after the first route has been completed.

To process and manage data, Flyability has developed custom software for its platform. ‘Inspector’ allows users to view their LiDAR point Clouds side-by-side with the 4K video feed, showcasing the simultaneous data collection and breadth of data available from even the shortest flights.

There is also the option to export and manage data on Flyability’s Inspector Online, a Cloud-based platform that includes additional tools such as Comparison Over Time and point cloud colourisation.

Flyability today: Leading the charge for inspection solutions

Today, Flyability maintains its headquarters in its hometown of Lausanne, Switzerland, with additional offices in Denver and Shanghai, as well as a network of sales representatives and licensed resellers.

Flyability representatives regularly travel around the world to demonstrate the capabilities of their solutions, from trade shows to mines, to show prospective users the technology in person, so that the Elios 3 can demonstrate its many capabilities.