The three co-founders of LYRobotix show off early prototypes at their office, which is located at the apartment of Zhao Xi (left) in Beijing. Zhang Daoning (center) is CEO of the startup and Ren Chuan is the chief technical officer. (Photo provided to China Daily)
LYRobotix plans to roll out a drone that will fly above guests, taking crystal clear photographs as well as streaming videos
When you go to an indoor wedding reception, birthday party or special event next year, you might find an unexpected guest.
Flying above the tables and chairs could be a drone, specially designed to take photographs and video by startup company LYRobotix, which was launched last year.
The fledgling firm was set up by three young friends and funded by an angel investment company, PreAngel Partners, to the tune of "millions of yuan".
Ren Chuan, one of the co-founders and chief technical officer, is convinced this indoor unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, will be a big hit.
"According to our preliminary plan, this miniature drone will be able to hover around designated areas at parties or functions and take photographs or videos," he said. "These can then be uploaded online by the person operating the UAV. As yet, we don't have a name for the drone and we are still working on the dimensions."
While major brands of outdoor consumer drones can cost up to 4,000 yuan, LYRobotix's miniature indoor version will retail at around 400 to 500 yuan ($65 to $80).
"Our hope is to make high quality miniature UAVs cheaper, so they are more affordable," Ren said.
LYRobotix is a typical small startup but the company has big plans. Zhao Xi, the only woman onboard and the chief operating officer, has turned one of the bedrooms of her parents' Beijing home into the firm's headquarters.
The three co-founders and friends also use a sitting room to discuss their progress.
"Traditional UAVs could only be operated outdoors, where there was a strong GPS signal," said Zhao, 25, who has put her doctoral studies at Colombia University in the United States on hold to help start the business.
"Indoors, the signals can be weak, and this means the UAV could crash or you would simply lose control. But we have been working on boosting the signal for our miniature drone," she added.
LYRobotix's UAV will have electronic "eyes" that will give the person operating it greater control in indoor spaces as it takes photographs and video footage.
"The drone we are working on will be able to take group pictures as well as 'selfies' from all different angles," she said.
But the idea to produce a small indoor drone was not Zhao's. She said an old high school friend and fellow co-founder Zhang Daoning came up with the project.
Now the chief executive officer of LYRobotix, Zhang became interested in the UAV market through his passion for model aircraft. He noticed that Chinese companies such as Dajiang Innovations Technology Co Ltd, or DJI, which is based in Shenzhen, were major global players when it came to hardware.
But he felt the software side of drones was still in its infancy here.
"So we have been working, since the beginning of the year, to develop a visual module, which can be installed on a UAV and can be operated through an app on a smart phone," Zhang, who has just graduated with a master's degree in computer science from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said.
"It will be easier to operate the drone, which will be more stable," he added.
LYRobotix has already started working on designs for what will eventually become the miniature UAV and hopes to roll out a prototype in November.
After that, the plan is to link up with a manufacturing company, which they are still working on, to mass produce the drone. "That would be the main goal," said Ren, one of the co-founders.
Like his friend Zhao, he also put his postgraduate studies on ice at the University of Southern California in the US while he concentrates on LYRobotix.
"Apart from the consumer market, we also hope to interest police forces and agricultural companies as well as architects in our miniature UAV," Ren added.
