Matěj Karásek is the Director and Co-founder of Flapper Drones alongside his colleague Rick Ruijsink. A company that aspires to create a new class of flapping wing drones for professionals as well as consumers.
Throughout this talk, Matěj discusses all things Flapper Drones and takes you through their early successes as a company, as well as sharing their newest venture.
He begins the talk by discussing the similarities shared between their particular drones; the electronic flight devices that have now become common place in a tech-forward society, and that of nature’s counterpart, the original flying animal – the bird. Matěj shares with us the ways in which the unique design of the Flapper Drones have been heavily inspired by both birds and insects; highlighting the ways in which they fly to adjust manoeuvrability and how that has been utilised when engineering their drones.
Challenges
The speaker then goes on to share some of the challenges that Flapper Drones face when it comes to building their drones. From the video, you will learn more about the following points in further depth.
Integration of:
- Wing actuation
- As simple as possible
- Minimal number of motors
- Power supply (battery)
- High energy and power density
- Flight control electronics
- Minimal number of sensors
- Low power
All whilst being small and lightweight.
Early success
Matěj tells a story of one of the first insect-inspired vehicles that their team built – the DelFly Nimble, with a 33 cm wingspan and weighing just 28 grams. As you can see in the video, some fascinating footage represents the abilities of the DelFly Nimble (2018) – giving the viewer an idea of its capabilities with regard to hovering, as well as how the device carefully models the manoeuvres of insects. This particular drone went on to be featured in Science, a highly reputable technology-based publication – bringing their company some welcome recognition.
Current endeavours
Stepping forward in time to present-day, five years after their breakthrough success with the DelFly Nimble and their well-received coverage, insights into the recent success is a real story in determination.
When you watch the video, you will get to see a live demonstration of The Flapper Nimble+. From this, you can see how easy the device is to operate, as well as just how safe the drone is itself – even allowing the user to touch its wings whilst in motion and not succumb to any injury, or inhibiting its flight. To find out some further information on the drone and its statistics, as well as the mechanism driving the device, watch the video in full.
As for reasons behind creating the drones and their original purpose, their initial focus was to use the drones for live show performances for the likes of concerts and stage shows. But as many startups must, their focus has pivoted. Whilst they do still have the original goals in their sights, they have now partnered up with another company to pursue their next goal as a company.
Flapper Drones have partnered up with a Swedish company called Bit Craze to release their newest venture – CrazieFlie Bolt which includes impressive features for various applications. Check out the video to learn how Flapper Drones differ from other drone companies in the market to really mark their point of difference from conventional drones.
Flapper Drones recognise the gaps in the current market and have diligently identified a solution to implement in their own devices – thus helping to close those gaps and find new applications for their drone technology that could help shape the modern world.
And by the way, if you’re interested in investing or simply want to learn more about Flapper Drones, be sure to watch the 20-minute video. Take it from us, these 20 minutes will flap past real fast.