Agricultural-robotics technology company enabling a modular swarm of autonomous drones for spraying

Project Information

Skyx

Grant agreement ID: 836621

DOI

10.3030/836621

Project closed

EC signature date 30 November 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 31 May 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SKYX LTD
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Skyx (Agricultural-robotics technology company enabling a modular swarm of autonomous drones for spraying)

Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2019-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Skyx is an agricultural-robotics tech company enabling a modular swarm of autonomous drones for spraying. We named our product PASS: Precision Agriculture Spraying Swarm, and this is a ready-to-go autonomous solution. Simply put: “push a button and send a group of drones to spray your agriculture farmland”.
The economic and environmental impact we present is based on a dramatic reduction of chemicals, together with a safer, more accurate, and cost-effective operation. Instead of a manual and uniform spraying operation that is based on one driver/pilot + one big tractor/airplane, we developed an autonomous fleet that can “travel” in the farmland and apply chemicals exactly as needed. Technically, we developed our proprietary mission planning software for the ground control + real-time communication and computing companion for each drone in a modular fleet. Each drone in our swarm can have a different payload/speed/width/time, and we know how to turn aerial imagery and crop scouting to “hotspots” coverage by the entire fleet. Commercially, we developed our market and financial strategy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the program, we developed Skyx to achieve the following deliverables:
• Building our R&D lab, conducting significant field trials, and measuring swarming performance
• Turning aerial imagery and crop scouting to a dramatic chemicals reduction by our variable rate application
• Clearly define our long-term strategy
• Learning the relevant regulation in our targeted markets
• Completing our market and competitive analysis and engaging our entire ecosystem
• Concluding our go-to-market strategy and developing our initial customers’ pipeline
• Finalizing our financial planning together with our “pay per spray” business model

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We conclude the program with results better than our expectations, both commercially and technically. Based on our solid go-to-market strategy and business model, we will continue to leverage our traction and commercially available product to turn Skyx to a worldwide leader in agriculture spraying.