Flytrex and The Flytrex Sky – A drone that operates in the cloud
The Flytrex Sky is operating in the cloud, both physically and in terms of software operation. Will it be secure and scalable enough for drone delivery?
PCMag ran an article the other day noting that the Flytrex Sky Drone is promising to be a platform for drone-based delivery services. Running via a cloud-based service can add security risks, we wanted to learn more.
Q. Could you tell our readers a bit about Flytrex and the Flytrex Sky drone?
Flytrex is a drone and drone accessories company, for the past 2 years we’ve been developing a line of black boxes and real time telemetry boxes for consumer drones. After attaching our Flytrex Live to your drone (we support most consumer drones on the market), you can view your flight path, voltage level and more on Android/iPhone app or on our website. All in real time of course.
Using this platform, we’ve just released our 1st Drone – The Flytrex Sky, which is designed to operate over the cloud – either using our apps or using a simple API, allowing other to develop their own apps and programs. The communication range is virtually unlimited using the 3G network.
Q. PCMag ran an article about your claim that “Flytrex Sky Drone Promises Package Delivery Via the Air”. In the article they note the following: “In order for it to complete a delivery, the recipient of the package must use the Sky Messenger app to land the drone.” Is this the case and is this simply a short-term limitation with the technology?
To fly safely, we’d like to make sure that there’s a human recipient at the other side of the flight path – one that can make sure there are no people near the landing spot, and can intervene if something goes wrong.
The recipient doesn’t need to manually take control over the drone while it is landing, that option is there as a precaution in case someone enters the area or the GPS location that was marked by the recipient was off by a few meters.
Q. Other than the technology challenge noted above, what are the biggest technical challenges in the drone market today?
The biggest challenge is the air time or distance a drone can travel. Current consumer drones (quadcopters) can stay aloft for 20-30 minutes, and that has to change.
The problem is that the advancements in battery technology and electrical propulsion systems are linear rather than exponential. We believe this is one of the biggest challenge the consumer industry is facing.
Q. Since Flytrex drones are cloud-based are there additional security concerns that make them more hackable? How are these concerns addressed?
Of course, the data is encrypted over the segment, so it’ll be very hard to “hijack” a drone while it is in the air. And we’re putting extra effort into making sure our platform is secure, safe and redundant.
Q. Drone-based delivery in the US may be slower to occur than in other parts of the world (with the exception of some testing soon to take place), are you testing your delivery capabilities elsewhere in the world?
As a company, it will take time until we will see commercial drones hovering above our heads. However, we’ve already seen private consumers flying their drones in some amazing ways.
Q. With badges and competitions you appear to be building a drone-based gamification platform. How do you see this system benefiting your users, and, if possible, the overall drone community?
Our badge and competition platform is opened for any drone owner – come in and enjoy the badges and prize competitions, it’s there for the entire community. I do not know of any other platform that enables competition for the entire community and not only for a single company / drone type.
Q. What are your development plans for the next few months?
In the next few months you’ll see the Flytrex Sky platform being used for all kind of purposes – using our API, users will be able to develop their own apps and services over our Sky drone and platform.
