Flyability takes on DARPA SubT Challenge with international team CERBERUS

Lausanne, Switzerland – Flyability joins the DARPA SubT Challenge granted team, CERBERUS, led by University of Nevada, Reno, along with international partners including ETH Zurich, University of California, Berkeley, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. 

Project CERBERUS will bring groundbreaking robotic solutions into the field of subterranean deployments. With the goal of supporting public safety professionals in time-sensitive operations or disaster response scenarios in underground environments, CERBERUS envisions the collaboration of walking and flying robots able to perceive the world beyond human’s ability. Through the combination of best of bread products and research projects, it will provide field experts with an autonomous, robust, and reliable way to fulfil their mission even in an unpredictable, and hostile subterranean setting.

“The environments where the challenge is taking place have a lot in common with those where our customers are deploying Elios daily,” says Adrien Briod, CTO, Flyability. “Taking part in the prestigious Subterranean DARPA challenge is an opportunity to collaborate with university laboratories and companies which are the best in their R&D fields.” Flyability is now recruiting specific profiles opening the door to talented graduates to join the Flyability adventure and contribute to the success of team CERBERUS. 

Set to win the DARPA SubT Challenge, team CERBERUS will compete in a series of events putting technological innovations to the test, against the rough realities of subterranean environments. These events will include the autonomous exploration of a man-made tunnel network (“Tunnel Circuit”), a multi-level urban underground structure (“Urban Circuit”) and a natural cave environment (“Cave Circuit”). Finally, the "Final Event" will bring together all of these environments pushing the challenge to its climax. The first circuit is scheduled for August 2019.

Team CERBERUS is based on an international collaboration between the Autonomous Robots Lab at the University of Nevada, the Robotic Systems Lab of ETH Zurich, the Autonomous System Lab of ETH Zurich, the HiPeR Lab of U.C. Berkeley, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Flyability. The cumulative expertise of the team enables the successful development and reliable operation of the CERBERUS system in the SubT Challenge.

About Flyability

Flyability is a Swiss company building safe drones for inaccessible places. By allowing drones to be used safely inside cities, inside buildings, and in contact with people, it enables new interactions and services with UAVs. With Elios, Flyability solves the two most critical issues of one of the fastest growing industries: collision and injury risks. The company’s first market is in industrial inspection where it avoids sending people in dangerous and confined spaces for the inspection of Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Mining, Chemical, or Maritime infrastructures. It is also active in Search & Rescue and Security to assess emergency situations without putting humans at risk. Flyability is the winner of the 1M USD Drones for Good Award and over 15 other technology and business prizes.

More information on www.flyability.com / @fly_ability