Can you imagine a traditional drone entering a building? It could resemble a action-thriller feature film, with the propellors causing lethal damage or colliding with obstacles. But not with Fleye: this soccer ball-shaped flying robot carrying a high definition camera weighing less than half a kilogram. With its single rotor completely wrapped in a protective shell, this drone is as likeable as Startwar’s Sphero BB-8, making it ideal for remote sensing in troubled indoor surroundings without any risk of causing injuries or destroying property.
Fleye feels comfortable in the most cramped surroundings, stable hovering and maneuvering its way forward, not getting stressed by a light bump underway. This intelligent little drone smoothly corrects its position when it is hit by a sidewind, leading to exciting but stable 360 degrees video shots. Safety concerns are one of the key aspects why drones are no welcome guests in crowded areas. Fleye, on the other hand, is quite approachable by humans, due to its friendly looking nature.
Laurent Eschenauer and Dimitri Arendt are the twoheaded Belgian master brains behind Fleye, which is a fully functional prototype at this point of writing. Fleye was launched on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in December 2015, reached 700 backers and raised over €300,000 euros in no more than 5 weeks time, well ahead of its campaign target. The duo now wants to produce 250 to 500 of their robots from current investors and Kickstarter backers funding.
Fleye was the eccentric at the Techcrunch in London end of 2015 and the flying robot was also showcased in the CES demo-booth in Las Vegas beginning of the year, generating quite some media buzz and gathering valuable prelaunch user feedback along the way.