It has been seven years since BUT and Galaxy GRS jointly presented to the public a unique rescue system for drones. Since then, the technology has become not only a successful product, which is especially popular with professionals flying drones for commercial purposes, but also the most successful licensed technology of BUT. The invention has already earned the school CZK 4,000,000 and the development of the rescue system continues.

When a drone breaks down, it has a big disadvantage compared to an aircraft. Few types can safely glide to the ground, most are sent mercilessly straight down by gravity and the damage is done, whether it is a broken drone, technology in the form of sensors or a film camera, or in the worst case, damage to health or lives.

Since 2015, those who want to avoid this risk have had the opportunity to opt for the rescue system developed by experts of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of BUT. Together with other partners and the Liberec company Galaxy GRS, they came up with an idea to produce a light and very effective rescue system for drones, whose parachute – depending on the weight of the drone – can open in one to three seconds. The seven-kilo drone, which originally headed to the ground at high speed, would land smoothly, as if it had fallen from a height of 70 centimeters.

After three years of development, this interesting idea was developed into a product with which Galaxy conquered the market in a number of countries. "We have customers in Europe, the United States, but also in Israel or New Zealand," says Milan Bábovka, chief designer and owner of Galaxy. In addition, sales on the EU market and in the US are protected by patents. Thanks to these patents, no one can produce or sell the same technology in these territories, although some have already tried.

"There have been two attempts to copy our product in Europe. Both companies were notified by our patent attorney and abandoned what they were doing," recalls Robert Popela, one of the originators of the invention of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering. In the third case, BUT is still suing the unnamed Czech company. "The decision of Ladislav Janíček, the former Bursar and current Rector, to defend our know-how and patent claims in court deserves respect. After all, it is necessary to take into account that the lawsuit costs the university money. In addition, the patent holders are at a disadvantage because the burden of proof that their invention has been copied lies on them," says Popela, adding that even a model and successful case of technology transfer is not a walk in the park.

Apart from the copying attempts, the competition has not yet caught up with the Czech invention. "For example, systems based on compressed gas have appeared, but they have proven to be heavier and less efficient. I think that in terms of technical parameters, nothing competitive has come up on the market so far," says Popela. In addition, legislation is slowly catching up with the market and is beginning to push for greater safety in the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. "For example, the French civil aviation authority Direction générale de l'aviation civile has introduced the obligation to have a drone equipped with a rescue parachute system and demonstrate its functionality to the staff of the authority," adds Bábovka.

Even domestic technology has not remained the same for seven years. The company stopped producing rescue systems for the smallest drones which were not in demand and continues to improve and develop the system together with the university, focusing especially on large unmanned aerial vehicles. "We are developing life-saving equipment for so-called VTOL (vertical take-off and landing, this term refers to aircraft that can take off and land vertically). They find themselves in a critical flight mode during their takeoff: low above the ground, at low speed. At this moment, a classic parachute is ineffective because it fails to fill enough to slow the aircraft down when falling. Milan Bábovka came up with the idea of so-called distributed ballistic rescue systems, where instead of one large central rescue parachute, we use more containers with more parachutes. They can inflate much faster and thus ensure the necessary slowing down of the fall," Popela describes.

While the GBS system, marketed today, targets on drones weighing from three to sixty-five kilograms, in case of VTOL we are talking about drones in the order of tons. Although it sounds like science fiction, these machines for the urban transport of the future are intensively developed by several companies, including Czech ones. "It is a category of so-called urban mobility, a vision for the transport of people within cities. These are in the order of two tons for five to seven passengers. Together with Galaxy, we respond to market developments," explains Popela, adding that companies such as Uber are also interested in the development.

Quality innovation with the potential to reach customers is therefore essential for successful technology transfer. But what about the next steps? To patent or not? "A patent pays off only starting from a certain financial potential of the product. At the same time, it must be said that the patent represents also an advertisement for the product itself, a sign that it is something unique. In my opinion, the key is the selection of countries in which to patent the invention. This develops from the assumption where the product has the greatest commercial potential. I think we were successful," says Popela.

As mentioned in the introduction, the invention is the most successful licensed technology of BUT to date. The school has already earned CZK 4,000,000 in royalties. Part of this amount covers costs associated with, for example, maintenance of the patents. The rest is then divided between the Rectorate, the Institute at which the invention originated, and the originator. "It's quite motivating," says Popela, adding that the fair approach of the partner company also played a role in their case. "Some companies expect to receive top know-how from the university almost for free, the culture in this respect is not very advanced in the Czech Republic. Fortunately, this was not the case, our agreement with Galaxy is very fair, "believes Popela.

"The cooperation between the BUT Institute of Aerospace Engineering and our company is very productive and useful for both parties, it makes it easier for us to test products and brings a different perspective to their operation, for BUT it is about cooperation and practical implementation with a company that has many years of experience with parachutes," concludes Bábovka.