Welcome to Devorto's Newsletter
|
Thursday, November 17th, 2022
|
Note from the Founder/CEO
Persistent flight... it's mankind's last great aviation milestone. A solar-powered
aircraft provides better capabilities than satellites but for the cost and logistics
of a drone. Major players in the defense, aerospace, and telecom industries have
desperately sought this capability because it will provide the backbone
for the next wireless telecom industry.
The Tethered Uni-Rotor Network (TURN) system started as a simple idea: use the physics
of a helicopter to solve the aerodynamic/structural problem ubiquitous to fixed-wing
aircraft. Having completed the R&D effort, funded through NASA and US Air Force grants,
Devorto is entering the next phase of its development: build the TURN hardware that will
disrupt how the world collects and transmits data.
These are exciting times for both the company and the industry. While other High-Altitude
Platform Station (HAPS) attempts continue to hit hardware limitations, TURN development
continues to exceed initial expectations. While the industry continues to demand this
capability, Devorto is well poised to provide the only practical and viable
technical solution.
But it's not the aircraft that matters... it's the new applications that will solve the
world's largest problems. Wireless broadband-speed Internet delivered across the planet,
atmospheric monitoring for better weather predictions and climate change data, a solution
to our 5G infrastructure problem, wildfire early detection and monitoring, search and
rescue for public safety, long range pipeline inspections, data for precision agriculture,
just to name a few. These are the things that truly matter. I'm tremendously excited
about our next steps and am thrilled you are a part of this journey.
Justin M Selfridge, PhD
|
TURN Animation Video
The TURN system is a simple concept. It doesn't require an advanced technical degree to
understand how and why it works. This video presents the design methodology in a format
that is accessible to a general audience. Plus, it's just fun to watch. Enjoy!
|
Meet the Team
Devorto is building a world-class team to transition the TURN system into its initial
commercial product. To start with, three industry experts bring diversified experience
to advise on business operations, product sales, and talent acquisition. Click the
images to see their LinkedIn profiles.
|
Ken Karklin
|
Al Waddill
|
Mark November
|
Business Operations
Advisor
|
Product Sales
Advisor
|
Talent Acquisition
Advisor
|
|
|
|
|
Former COO of AeroVironment, responsible for six product lines as the US military's top supplier
for small UAS; current CEO of Opener Aero, a front-runner in the eVTOL urban air mobility market.
|
President of Groen Brothers Aviation; has 25 years as Head of Sales for advanced vertical takeoff
aircraft; worked on DARPA funded research aircraft including the high-speed Heliplane.
|
Investor with several successful exits; finds the right talent and builds teams for technology
companies; connects early-stage ventures with the right funding sources to scale business operations.
|
|
Newchip Accelerator
There are numerous accelerators available to early-stage technology companies, but Newchip
stands above the rest with a competitive admission process and all the tools and resources
needed for Devorto to transition out of R&D stealth-mode. Completing the program built up
industry connections, formulated the business model, established an online presence,
fostered customer discovery interviews, and established a foundation for Devorto to pursue
its initial commercial product. Because Devorto was so successful within the program, we
were specifically featured within a Newchip company spotlight video.
|
Completed R&D
Building a brand-new aerial architecture is no small undertaking. Devorto would like to
acknowledge the groups that contributed $475k of funding which completed the R&D effort
for the TURN system. Each task addressed the largest technical risk at that time, most
produced better results than originally anticipated, and many shed valuable insights
towards the future business endeavor. Images below link to technical reports
and publications.
|
UVA Dissertation (Nonlinear Control Laws)
The largest upfront technical challenge was to show that TURN can be actively
controlled. Doctoral research developed equations describing the multibody system
model, devised a set of nested adaptive control laws acting on local and relative
states, and successfully simulated the nonlinear dynamics with disturbance rejection
and reference tracking.
|
|
NASA NIAC (HAPS Feasibility)
The next task needed to show how TURN compares to fixed-wing aircraft and other
HAPS attempts. This effort investigated the benefits of radial acceleration influencing
the structural and aerodynamic properties of the TURN system. A feasibility analysis
showed a 16X reduction in power compared to other HAPS attempts and demonstrated that
persistent flight is attainable with readily available battery and solar cell components.
|
|
Air Force AFRL SBIR (Spiral Development Path)
An SBIR solicitation called for an ultra-endurance UAS that carries a 250-pound payload
drawing 2000 watts of power. Solar cells where not feasible to satisfy their medium-altitude
operational requirement, but the research closed a design for an internal combustion
engine TURN system with a 30-day flight endurance. The spiral development plan called
for several smaller hardware milestones, which inspired the business plan to
commercialize each iteration while progressing towards the TURN HAPS platform.
|
|
CIT CRCF (Prototype VICON Flight Testing)
Spiral development is an essential strategy to mitigate the unknown-unknows while
developing an unconventional aircraft. Flight data from smaller systems validates
existing models, which then become design tools for the next largest embodiment.
This effort built several proof-of-concept platforms, collected flight data within
a VICON motion capture studio, and validated nonlinear dynamics with the
physical flight data.
|
|
Air Force AFWERX STTR (AHRS Algorithm)
The roll/pitch/yaw states are needed to implement the control law architecture, but
traditional Attitude Heading and Reference System (AHRS) algorithms are not equipped
to account for the constant rotation of a TURN platform. This final research activity
developed a custom algorithm, which leverages the system rotation and produces a more
robust estimate than traditional algorithms. This non-obvious implementation will
remain a trade secret which helps maintain Devorto's competitive advantage.
|
|
Market Insights
COVID-19 was an unprecedented event in our history, and it negatively impacted
countless individuals, families, companies, and industries. But in some ways,
it also helped redefine entire aspects of our society. For example, it changed
our viewpoint on working remotely. Telecommunication technologies were already
available, but incorporating those tools only became an absolute necessity a
few years ago. Now, many employers/employees are reluctant to revert.
The same is true for the drone industry. Following the COVID-19 outbreak,
reports show a considerable increase in drone technology adoption across various
industries, and they proved to offer immense value. Drones are widely adopted
in the healthcare sector for lab sample pickup and delivery and transporting
medical supplies, which reduces transportation turnaround time and limits
exposure to infection.
From Grand View Research, "The hybrid segment is expected to register the
fastest CAGR of about 64.0% from 2021 to 2028 in terms of volume. Hybrid
commercial drones use the advantages of batteries and fuel combined to
maximize their power and efficiency. Additionally, these drones fly for
a longer duration with higher payloads even in adverse weather conditions.
Technology giants such as Facebook and Amazon are using hybrid drones for
providing internet connectivity in remote areas and for efficient parcel
delivery, respectively."
This clearly shows that flight endurance paired with a Vertical Takeoff
and Landing (VTOL) capability is the highest customer priority, and it
will be the largest factor which determines competitive advantage
across the industry.
|
Current HAPS Limitations
Another one bites the dust. The Airbus Zephyr was tantalizing close to setting
another word record, this time for the longest duration flight. But for unknown
reasons the drone started displaying erratic flight maneuvers and then lost
contact with its ground controller. After 64 days of continuous flight, the
aircraft still has not been recovered.
Details on the specifics of what happened are rather sparse, but it states
the system lost significant altitude over a very short period of time,
descending around 45 knots (which is pretty close to its operation cruise
speed), and then communications failed around 49k ft.
Based on what the article reported, it sounds like the most likely culprit
was a battery failure. The aircraft couldn't maintain altitude, it struggled
to maintain its flight plan with its final energy reserves, and then lost
communications once the battery bottomed out. Time will tell (if they
can find it).
Don't get me wrong... a 64-day flight is a modern marvel and truly
impressive, and Zephyr pushed the limit for a conventional fixed-wing
aircraft design. But it goes to show that there is a limit... and traditional
designs just aren't up to the task to deliver a High Altitude Platform
Station (HAPS) capability. Google and Facebook have also invested in HAPS
aircraft but walked away from their investments from a lack of feasibility.
Even fully optimized platforms have only demonstrated flights under ideal
solar conditions during short windows within summer months.
It's time to rethink what a HAPS platform should look like. The Tethered
Uni-Rotor Network (TURN) system was specifically designed to resolve the
aerodynamic/structural tradeoff plaguing conventional fixed-wing systems.
Having completed our latest United States Air Force STTR grant, Devorto
is building a small-scale flight demonstrator and ramping up for its
initial commercial product.
|
|
|
