Darius Merk

Our team believes in a future where autonomous robotics are used in meaningful, accountable applications. Commercial UAVs have the technical capabilities to help save lives and share important stories- but they have continued to be held back by fundamental problems in safety, regulation, and flight time. By solving these fundamental issues, our team is able to offer the next generation of accountable and autonomous aerial robotics that are ready for real-world use today. Fotokite technology uses a tether combined with an onboard IMU to compute the vehicle's position relative to the user. This allows for quick deployment and controlled flight by virtually anyone and obviates the need for complex start-up protocols, GPS dependency, trained pilots, and bulky remote controls. The core algorithms were developed and refined over the course of years of research and experimentation at the world renowned Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich. With this foundation in place, the team is now working on expanding control capabilities with a keen eye on delivering intuitive user interaction, enabling expanded capabilities to teams in Firefighting and Public Safety applications.