When you’re craving dinner and in a hurry, who do you call?

Yariv Bash is the CEO and Co-founder of Flytrex, an on-demand drone delivery company . Flytrex provides a direct-to-consumer autonomous drone delivery service that lets retailers and quick-service restaurants cater to a wider customer base with faster, safer and more economical on-demand deliveries than ever before.

Flytrex is currently working with several restaurant chains and retail giant Walmart to deliver food and goods to customers’ front and backyards.

Prior to Flytrex, Yariv was Founder and CEO of SpaceIL, a $100M Israeli non-profit organization that launched Beresheet, the first private interplanetary robotic mission to the Moon in 2019.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Yariv talks about Flytrex, its innovative hot food drone delivery service and how drones are transforming the home food delivery industry.

Can a drone prevent the loss of life from volcanos?

David Adjiashvili is Co-Founder and Vice President of Products at Drone Harmony.  Drone Harmony is a software as a service company that automates mission planning in the most challenging vertical inspection scenarios.  Their software enables cost-effective deployment of drone technology in industries where existing technologies are unable to deliver. And it enables pilots with minimal training to collect high quality, reproducible data.

As a Swiss company, Drone Harmony understands that the safety of your data is essential and even deploys their system on your premises. The company was founded in 2016 by a team of problem solvers with a passion for drones, software and automation.

In addition to being one of those founders and Chief Scientist, he is also senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. His field of expertise is Algorithm Design and Mathematical Optimization, and he has been responsible for algorithmic development of the Drone Harmony Mission Planner.

David received his Bachelors degree in computer science from the Tel Aviv University and his Master’s in applied mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the ETH Zurich in 2012 specializing on algorithm design for planning and optimization problems. He has since been employed in the Mathematics Department at ETH and worked on various research and industrial projects in the field of optimization.

In 2021 Drone Harmony assisted DERYL Group KK and the Kyoto University in generating an up-to-date high-resolution 3D model of Japan’s Sakurajima volcano. 

Sakurajima is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.  It is located in the south of Japan, with approximately 600,000 people living within 4 kilometers. Scientists are predicting a major eruption within the next 30 years.  The project team used Drone Harmony to develop the 3-D model and run various simulations for disaster prevention and response, with the goal of developing evacuation and mitigation plans for all potential disaster scenarios. Mapping a terrain is typically a straightforward process, but the Project Team quickly learned that a large geographic area, much of which is inaccessible, hostile and changing poses several challenges.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, David talks about Drone Harmony, the company’s 3-D mapping services and how that technology can be used to accurately map  and model large vertical geographic areas.

How do you simplify material-failure detection? 

If you ask today’s guest, he would say teach a computer to do it. Jonathan Ehrlich is COO of T2D2, a software-as-a-service company that that uses artificial intelligence to identify and assess damage and deterioration to buildings and structures. T2D2 applies data from more than 50 years of building inspection and forensic investigation work. The data is now available to property and portfolio owners and managers as well as municipalities to identify deterioration early and throughout the life of an asset. T2D2 makes it easier, quicker and less expensive to inspect structures by identifying damage and defects before they become major issues.  Their software automatically detects visible damage in concrete, steel and masonry structures.

T2D2 was established within Thornton Tomasetti, a global design and engineering firm with more than 50 years experience in structural design.  Initially part of the Core Studio incubator, T2D2 was commercialized as a separate entity through the firm’s accelerator program. Before becoming COO of T2D2, Jonathan served as the Director of Strategy, Corporate Development and Partnerships at ButterflyMX, a leader in real estate software technology. Prior, he specialized in the financing and development of mega infrastructure and real estate projects. He served as the Director of Budget and Risk Management for the $3.9B Mario M. Cuomo Bridge to replace the Tappan Zee. Prior to that he served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the New York State Thruway Authority where he was responsible for Board oversight of the $1.5B multi-year capital program and pavement condition rating system. He holds a BA from Tufts University and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Johnathan talks about T2D2, the company’s AI inspection services and how that technology is simplifying the façade and infrastructure inspections.