Flyability SA is a Swiss company founded in 2014 and based in Lausanne. Spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, it currently employs >40 full-time employees, dedicated to turning drones into real partners for humans.
Flyability is building safe drones for operating indoors, in complex and confined spaces, and in contact with people. Flyability offers a simple solution to a complex problem: its flying robots use obstacles instead of avoiding them. You don’t need to be a world-class pilot or get special training and can fly easily and safely, even in the most confined areas.
Developed during 5 years of research at EPFL in Switzerland, Flyability’s cutting-edge technology is both simple and robust, relying on the latest advancements in material science. It was originally inspired by the behaviour of insects (a fly easily recovers after encountering an obstacle by bouncing and continuing to fly undisturbed). The innovations of Flyability’s technology lie in the patented rotating protective frame and flight control algorithms.
Relevant skills
Flyability is currently focused on the Industrial inspection applications, mostly in Energy, Oil & Gas, Maritime, and heavy industries. As most inspection processes involve examining complex and hard to reach areas, Flyability’s solution is ideal for these situations as it is more time and cost efficient and does not place on-site workers at risk.
Flyability has already customers in the maritime industry, and has conducted multiple missions in the field of internal or ballast tank inspection, which shows a high relevance to take part in the ROBINS project. Also, Flyability’s vision is to increase the ease of use of drone-based inspection through increased automation. The ROBINS project is the perfect platform to develop such features and ensure they match real needs and real inspection conditions.
Role in the project and main tasks
Flyability is leader of WP3 which is dedicated to the development of aerial platform for irregular in confined spaces. It participates to WP1, WP2, WP6, WP7, WP9 in order to enforce the integration of specification, development, testing and integration of the different parts involved in the technological advances foreseen in the project. It also collaborates to WP10 and WP11 for dissemination, exploitation and management activities.
