PORTEFEUILLE

Voliro develops the next generation of autonomous flying robots, an omnidirectional platform with the unique capability to approach, touch, and interact with the environment. This shifts the abilities of service drones from “fly and see” to “fly, see and touch”. Voliro robots are “Hands in the Sky”. This novel ability to interact with the environment through a flying platform opens the door to large markets where construction or maintenance tasks require additional infrastructure. Such tasks include Non-destructive infrastructure inspection where a sensor is often required to be in contact with structures, spraying of fluids to clean buildings facades, cleaning of walls and windows, painting and coating of surfaces and even firefighting through the windows of buildings.
Many of the aforementioned applications are in areas that are hard to reach, where scaffoldings, cranes or climbing experts are required to gain access. These methods are often risky, time consuming and expensive. Executing these tasks by means of an aerial robot will eliminate the need for scaffoldings, reduce or even eliminate assets downtime, enable inspections in hazardous environments, and increase the value of collected data thanks to the precise and automated data collection.

Within this project, we focus on accurate and reliable 3D mapping and localization using multisensor fusion such as Laser Scanner (LiDAR), cameras and inertial measurement unit (IMU) to enable autonomous mission execution. The resulting 3D map will be also used for mission planning and inspection results reporting, enabling digitalization of assets monitoring and maintenance.

Voliro is currently working with key selected customers through an Early Adopter Program, to start deploying Voliro’s robots on small scale in industrial sites.

Allenspach, M., Bodie, K., Brunner, M., Rinsoz, L., Taylor, Z., Kamel, M., Siegwart, R. and Nieto, J., 2020. Design and optimal control of a tiltrotor micro-aerial vehicle for efficient omnidirectional flight. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 39(10-11), pp.1305-1325;
Watson, R., Kamel, M., Zhang, D., Dobie, G., MacLeod, C., Pierce, S.G. and Nieto, J., 2021. Dry coupled ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation using an over-actuated unmanned aerial vehicle. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering;
Deployment of Contact-Based Ultrasonic Thickness Measurements using Over-Actuated UAVs. Robert J. Watson , S. Gareth Pierce , Mina Kamel , Dayi Zhang , Charles N. Mac-Leod , Gordon Dobie , Gary Bolton , Tariq Dawood , and Juan Nieto. The European Workshop for Structural Health Monitoring 2020 (to appear).

Wyss news
Protagonist in the Swiss Startup Documentary
Vols de mesure réussis dans la cimenterie Holcim de Siggenthal à l’aide de drones spéciaux de Voliro, une entreprise issue du giron de l’EPFZ, Holcim press release, 11 Août 2021
Impact Clip