Active Research
Cooperative Lift
Skein
Skein, named for a flock of geese in flight, lets a team of small, low-cost drones carry one heavy load together, with no single point of failure and no continuous ground station connectivity required.
Lift capacity grows with the number of aircraft, and the team keeps flying and delivers the load if a vehicle is lost. The load needs no sensors, GNSS, radio, or power of its own, and the aircraft keep track of it without any help from it. Skein installs on small unmanned aircraft an operator already owns, with unmodified off-the-shelf autopilots, so a fleet built for one job becomes scalable heavy lift for another: resupply at the edge, construction, and utility work. Skein is simulation-validated today, with a hardware prototype next.
- One load, many aircraft: lift capacity scales with the size of the team
- No continuous ground station connectivity required, and no single point of failure
- Keeps flying and delivers the load if a vehicle is lost
- No sensors, GNSS, radio, or power needed on the load