In 2018, Flyability was invited on a mission to explore a cave in the Greenland ice sheet. The mission, sponsored by French luxury ski apparel company Moncler, was for scientists to examine how water travels deep under the ice sheet, and how that affects climate change. In 1996, Janot Lamberton set a new record with an ice decent of 202 meters, about 663 ft. Since then, it has not been safe for people to descend any deeper into the ice cave. Global warming has made the stability of caves in the ice sheet unpredictable. Now, with the advancement of drones, reaching deeper depths have become a reality. But not just any drone will do.

Founded in 2014 by Adrien Briod and Patrik Thevoz out of Lausanne, Switzerland, Flyability creates commercial drones that can be safely used close to people and indoors. Because of the risks involved with drones, the possibility of them crashing and causing severe damage and injury, commercial drones come with a lot of restrictions. Flyability’s drone, Elios, is specifically designed to be collision tolerant. Inspired by how an insect just keeps on flying after colliding with an obstacle, Elios is designed to bounce off and reroute around an obstacle, rather than need complex sense and avoid software.

The Elios is a small, lightweight drone equipped with an HD camera for live and recorded footage. The drone also has plenty of onboard LED lights to allow for crystal clear images in any setting. But what truly sets this drone apart is the protective cage that surrounds it. The modular, carbon fiber frame is easily maintained and protects the drone and any person or structure it may collide with. As Flyability’s website states, “This means you can access the tightest spaces without any risk of crashing. No need to focus on avoiding obstacles, Elios bounces off and roll on them to find its way. You can fly close or even in direct contact with humans without any risks of injuries.”

This made the Elios the perfect tool for Professor of Planetary Geology and Exploration at the University of Bologna, Francesco Sauro, to reach record depths in an ice cave in Greenland. Without fear of damaging the drone or the cave’s structural integrity, a pilot from Flyability navigated the Elios to a depth of 300 meters to the bottom of the same cave Janot Lamberton had previously explored. When the drone reached the bottom of the cave the global team of scientists was in awe of the lake they discovered.

With the success of the mission into the ice sheet, Flyability was once again contacted for a never before done mission. This time they would be flying a drone into a reactor at the site of one of the world’s greatest nuclear disasters, Chernobyl. On Saturday, April 26, 1986, a safety test in reactor number 4 lead to a level 7 nuclear energy accident, the maximum rating allotted by the International Nuclear Event Scale. The results were catastrophic, making the entire region a radioactive zone. There is a lot of debates as to when the site will be habitable again, with some estimating hundreds of years and others claiming it will take tens of thousands of years.

Since the nuclear accident occurred, there has been a slow, but ongoing process to decommission the rest of the reactors at Chernobyl. During the time of the explosion, reactor number 5 was under construction. In the chaos, there were no records claimed on the status of reactor 5, whether or not the depleted uranium fuel bars for which the reactor was built had ever been delivered. Before sending a human team in to begin decommissioning reactor 5, they needed to know if it was safe.

The Elios proved again to be perfectly suited to enter an unknown, enclosed environment. “The Chernobyl mission was stressful because the wall we had to fly over was 70 meters [230 feet] high, so there was no way we could get the drone back if the signal was lost,” says Charles Rey, the Training Manager at Flyability. “But the mission was a great success, and the people in charge at Chernobyl were very happy with the video and images we were able to collect inside Reactor Five.” The images, as seen from a video Flyability released, showed a view of a dusty, ramshackle interior of the reactor. It was clear from drone footage that nothing had changed inside of the structure in the last 34 years.

But more importantly, the drone footage showed the decommission team that the uranium pools inside of reactor 5 were empty. It was safe for humans to begin work on the site. Flyability was founded to create a safe way for drones to be used as inspection tools in confined spaces or areas not safe for people. Elios is used to make inspections for oil and gas companies, construction and energy companies, and more. But seeing their drones being used to inspect never before seen terrain, like an ice cave or a dangerous nuclear reactor, brought great pride to Mr. Briod. “At Flyability, scientific discovery and exploration are dear to our hearts,” Briod said. “The core focus of our work is on creating indoor inspection solutions to replace the need for people to enter dangerous, confined spaces. But we also want to help expand the boundaries of human knowledge by accessing places that couldn’t otherwise be reached.”