Safety first – validating our upcoming Sky II drone parachute

By Roman Dvorkin , VP of Engineering

Over the past year, we’ve rigorously tested and tweaked our upcoming new drone model, the Sky II, to ensure that it can fly farther, faster, carry heavier payloads, and handle inclement weather… but what happens in the rare case that all mitigation layers fail?

Recently, our team has been hard at work to validate the integrity of the drone together with its parachute system. The parachute system is deemed durable and safe to use once we successfully prove it can hold up to a set of different scenarios. These scenarios test how the parachute system reacts to different mechanical failures, including some, or all, motors failing while flying, while hovering, and even during a 3-second shock-load situation.

For example, during such a “shock-load” test the drone intentionally free falls for 3 full seconds before we trigger the parachute. This is done to see how the parachute system can handle the full force of deploying after the drone has gained speed from free falling. The test is successful if the parachute system works as intended and the drone’s frame is strong enough to stay intact.

Once all of the scenarios have been successfully completed with the desired results (i.e. the parachute deploys, sets off a loud buzzer to alert people nearby, and the drone safely lowers to the ground at a low speed), we are ensured that we have a functional parachute system that makes our drone safe to take to the skies.Although we never wish to open a parachute during a flight, it’s always best to have one additional mitigation layer in place –?providing the safest experience possible to our users!