LOOP Autonomous Drone Systems

Over het initiatief / About the initiative

In welke fase zit jouw initiatief? / In what stage is your initiative?

Ideefase

Heb je jouw initiatief al gevalideerd? / Did you validate your initiative?

We participated in two of Braventure’s startup readiness programs, one of which was heavily focused on customer validation. As part of this, we conducted interviews with potential customers including DAF, Bosch, and the Ministry of Defense. We improved our concept based on their feedback and also identified defense as our potential earlyvangelist.

Meer informatie over jouw initiatief / More info about your initiative

We are two students from the TU/e, and for the past few years we have been working in the biggest drone student team of our university. Zach has been the engineering lead, and Ivan was the general manager of our team of 25 students. Together, we gained a good understanding of what it takes to develop a new drone system on both the technology and innovation management side. We began looking for where we could best apply our unique experiences.

We first came across rush order deliveries during a conversation with DAF Trucks as they were looking to reduce their most important deliveries to a matter of hours in the Netherlands. For example, consider a refrigerated or livestock truck breaking down. A crucial spare part delivered quickly could avoid sending a full replacement vehicle.

Truck repairs are already a significant issue, but we looked further into who faces issues with rush order deliveries. For example, factory lines face almost the same issues. In a 24/7 running factory, downtime due to repair can never be made up. This made us realize that the problem wasn’t limited to transport. Rush deliveries are critical wherever complex systems can’t afford downtime.

We also looked into defense applications, as rush order deliveries can happen on the frontline as well. In fact, we found what we believe to be our entry to the rush delivery market: blood delivery to wounded soldiers.

In combat environments, 10-16% of all traumatic deaths are caused by hemorrhage. These casualties are classified as preventable and could be reduced by providing real blood to the wounded soldiers faster. That means thousands of lives could be saved. In this application, our drones’ improvements match the problem perfectly. They provided faster delivery and rely less on the infrastructure, while also taking humans out of the incredibly dangerous deliveries so close to the combat.

Wat is er anders/nieuw aan jouw idee/oplossing t.o.v. bestaande oplossingen? / What is different/new about your idea/solution compared to existing solutions??

One of the key lessons we learned in our student drone team is not to reinvent the wheel. There are already excellent drone airframes on the market, so we’re focusing our development on what’s still needed by customers: the delivery capabilities.

Our unique contributions are twofold. First, we are increasing automation in the loading and unloading process to eliminate the need for human handling. Second, we are developing a battery exchange mechanism that enables instant turnaround, crucial for time-critical deliveries and when delivering in hostile areas.

By building on proven airframes, we can move faster and get to impact sooner. Once our solution is validated in the field, we plan to develop our own optimized airframe.

Wat zijn jouw volgende stappen om het verder te ontwikkelen? / What are your next steps to develop the initiative?

Our next step is to build the first functional system by adapting an existing military drone airframe. These developments will focus on the essential capabilities required for frontline blood deliveries. This includes a portable delivery station for the frontline medical personnel and the delivery capabilities on the airframe.

We have a clear technical roadmap and aim to achieve a delivery demo within nine months. This demo will be used to secure a letter of intent from a launch partner in defense. For this development phase, we plan to utilize subsidies.

Once our solution is validated, we plan to scale within NATO defense forces and begin adapting our system for industrial use cases.

Wat heb je nodig om (nog meer) impact te maken met dit initiatief? / What do you need to make (more) impact with this initiative?

As student founders, we are always looking for more expertise in the field, both in drone tech and defense. We are also looking for connections with more drone manufacturers. We believe that our approach of not developing our own airframe will help us grow faster, while keeping our focus on our core development: the delivery system. By collaborating with different manufacturers, we can adapt our system to multiple platforms, gaining traction more quickly before developing our own optimized airframe in the future.