RT1

AI Powered Predator For Bugs

RT1 is a novel solution that turns quadrocopter into an air suction machine. It is the only flying solution by now and the only one that can be truly efficient.

It began as an idea of a high-tech solution for fighting mosquitoes and other insects without even making harm to them. However it appeared to have more applications than that. We start with describing main principle of operation and than list possible applications.

The concept is straightforward: hunt for a bug, catch it and move to a distant place.

We do not even have to kill a bug. We kindly relocate it to the place of our choice. Like collecting into an external container for future composting or relocating to a farming field of your competitor (feature available only in Premium version).

It took a lot of time and effort to bring it all together and allow a free-floating machine to automatically catch an object that is x100 times smaller. It is a very tough task. But finally, we succeeded.

Principle Of Operation

Main idea is to drive air suction by quadrocopter propellers. This allows to reuse existing parts and avoid additional increase of weight and electrical power consumption.

This is achieved by iris mechanism that pressurizes propeller capsules when suction is activated. All four capsules are connected to main suction tube by pipes. When capsules are sealed on top, main tube starts to suck air. When capsules are sealed on bottom, main tube starts to blow air, i.e. eject sucked objects. In both cases quadrocopter starts to loose thrust and fall down when capsules are sealed. That's why suction is activated by series of short impulses, which allows to compensate lost altitude. It's also possible to keep iris half open to achieve both suction and steady position.

Design goal was to minimize number of parts and make final solution both lightweight and robust. It allows to minimize production cost and maximize battery life at the same time. All of the parts are fully specified with drawings and ready for production. Part drawing example is available in Appendix.

Modules

RT1 consists of few unique modules, each having value by itself. Combined they form a perfect union that allows to achieve unprecedented results. Some of these modules have pending patents.

Integrated Suction Mechanism

The key feature of RT1 is it's novel suction mechanism integrated with existing propellers. It uses Iris Mechanism to seal the capsules. It allows to implement suction almost with no weight or power consumption overhead.

Two-sense Navigation System

RT1 has a pair of cameras and a pair of microphones which implement two sense navigation system: vision and hearing. Having a pair of each sensor allows to operate in stereo mode for precise localization of objects in 3D space. There is also infrared structured light projector which helps cameras to "see" objects better by illuminating them with simple geometrical patterns.

This all allows RT1 to successfully navigate and localize objects even in the dark.

Autonomous Charging System

RT1 can automatically locate it's charging pad and charge itself when necessary. Charging pad has a sphere shaped socket which helps during drone nesting. Even if drone has a slight deviation in it's positioning spherical shape will help to center it properly. Black circles of different width serve as a landing mark and calibration target.

Pad is made from a fabric material and can be easily folded and relocated. It can be connected to electrical outlet or USB port for charging.

State-of-the-art Software

All of the systems mentioned above are driven by a dedicated software package that coordinates and controls them. At the heart of it are two subsystems: Computer Vision ans SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping). It is created by professional software engineers that have experience in successful world-class Computer Vision and Machine Learning projects.

Applications

We call RT1 a platform because it is not a single purpose product. It can be easily adapted to few different applications without making significant changes to it's architecture. Main applications are agriculture & domestic debugging, vacuum cleaning. These are the applications that unleash full potential of RT1, revolutionizing corresponding industries.

Agriculture Debugger

RT1 can fight pests at industrial level. It will operate based on the same principles as in the case of domestic debugging but industrial device will be more robust and larger.

It's undeniable advantage will be 100% environment friendliness: no pesticides, no more poisoning nature and human kind. It is like picking pests by hand but in a much more efficient high tech way.

Another advantage is dependency only on electrical power. Electricity can be produced by solar power plants right on a site of big agriculture plantations. This would make the solution entirely independant on external resources.

Domestic Debugger

RT1 can autonomously detect, hunt down and trap mosquitoes and other annoying insects or bugs. It can do it at home, office or even in the countryside. Our objective was to not only make ecology friendly solution (no toxic insecticides involved) but also avoid killing. RT1 does not kill insects. Instead it relocates them to safe distance and ejects, leaving insects in the hands of nature selection.

We believe this is the ultimate high tech solution possible. All existing solutions not only kill the insects but also poison humans and nature.

Global Impact

Mosquitoes are known to be vectors of several diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and Zika virus, among others. In areas where these diseases are prevalent, controlling mosquito populations can help prevent their spread.

Mosquitoes can have a significant impact on the environment. For example, in some areas, they may be responsible for the decline of native species, such as birds and amphibians, by serving as a food source for non-native predators.

Mosquito-borne diseases can have a significant economic impact on affected communities. For example, the cost of treating malaria can be significant, and the disease can also cause lost productivity due to sickness and death.

Imagine that we could spread a swarm of debugging drones over the affected area. Drones work autonomously: collect the bugs -> move to the container -> recharge if needed -> repeat. In other words, it’s like injecting a big number of natural predators that would drastically reduce the population of danger species.

Other Applications

RT1 software and modules can be useful for other applications which are currently low priority but can be reconsidered in the future.

  • Outdoor cleaning drone (e.g. park leaves, skyscraper windows, street lights, monuments, etc)
  • Carrier for other tools (e.g. sprayer to paint surfaces that are hard to reach)

Market

We list two tables to give a general idea of RT1 market potential per each application. First table includes estimation of global market size and expected annual growth rate (CAGR). The values were taken from open databases and market research papers. Second table includes estimation of customer cost recalculated annually. For example if average vacuum cleaner cost is $200 and usually it serves for 5 years, it's annual cost will be $40. Insecticide costs are given per hectare (ha) including electricity costs. Detailed calculation of each value is available by request.

Market Size And Growth Forecast

PRODUCT GLOBAL MARKET SIZE
(2022)
FORECAST CAGR
(2022-25)
 
Domestic Debugging
Repellents (all kinds) $3.8B +7.0%
Mosquito nets $12.5B +4.5%
 
Agriculture Debugging
Insecticides $15.3B +5.1%
 

Annual Customer Cost

PRODUCT ANNUAL COST
 
Domestic Debugging
Repellents (all kinds) $30
Mosquito nets $10
RT1 $100
 
Agriculture Debugging
Insecticides $30/ha
RT1 $13/ha
 

Values are given for general reference. Detailed business plan is out of the scope of this presentation.

Sources:
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com
https://mordorintelligence.com
https://www.marketwatch.com

Who we are

The founders are Dmytro Titov and Heorhii Shakula, software engineers from Kyiv, Ukraine. Our main expertise is Computer Vision and Machine Learning. We’ve been working in world-class projects of Adobe, NVIDIA, AMD, etc. We dare to challenge the most complex tasks and succeed.

Our bigger team includes top notch engineers in various fields, like physics, electrical engineering and machine learning.

Our past experience was mainly focused on AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality). We worked on the very first product for creating and authoring 360/VR content called SkyBox Studio, which was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2017.

AR/VR projects involve a lot of math, computer vision and image processing. All of this tech stack is also required in robotics applications. That’s why we felt very comfortable when starting own robotics project a few years ago. It was rapidly developed from idea into a working prototype.

In 2022 we won a grant program from the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. We are looking forward to bringing even more previously unimaginable drone application ideas to life.

Appendix

[1] Full assembly animation (link)
[2] Part drawing example (link)