Avientus Zips Through the Skies

Avientus Zips Through the Skies

The young startup aims to bring a drone system for rapid goods delivery to market.

Johannes Aicher uses a ski lift as an illustrative example of what he and his three co-founders have developed over the past few months. A ski lift transports people from the valley to the mountain and slows down when passengers get on and off. The same happens when the Avientus drone performs its duties. Its purpose is “same-hour delivery” – meaning: it autonomously picks up a package at a loading station, swiftly flies it to its destination, gently unloads it there, possibly picks up a new package, and quickly returns. This could significantly speed up the delivery of spare parts to a workshop or service technician.

The key lies in the system: autonomous loading and unloading thanks to an intelligent loading station and a smart flying device. “It looks a bit like if a drone and an airplane had a child,” says Aicher with a smile. He is a trained mechanical engineer, former Sauber employee, and ETH alumnus. And this “child” is meant to be capable of quite a bit – though still in development, as the startup is young. It should eventually be able to autonomously attach up to 25 kg of cargo suspended on a cable and cover around 40 km. “This keeps the landing center of gravity consistent.” For the ski-lift-like part (the docking and undocking) the aircraft rotates 90 degrees from horizontal to vertical. “Everything engineering-related doesn’t worry us,” he says. The real challenge lies more in the business and communication aspects.

But even there, they have some experience: the four co-founders met during the AMZ Racing focus project. A good foundation: “In your studies, you learn to do things right. At AMZ, you learn to do the right things.”