Patrons Book
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Market Assessment
Market Comparison
One of the main competitors the Volantem Machina will face is the DJI Agras MG-1. This aircraft is best known for its spraying ability, which is now 40-60 times faster than manual spraying. The system allows the aircraft to carry up to 10 kg liquid payloads, including pesticides and fertilizers. It takes about 10 minutes to cover an area of 4,000 m². Their spraying system adjusts its spray depending on the flying speed, ensuring an even spray. This allows for the amount of pesticide or fertilizer is precisely regulated to avoid pollution and economize operations. It has an interchangeable nozzle to spray at different volumes. Even though our drone is not designed to spray, they can still be considered a main competitor, for the fact that a consumer may choose their product over ours.
However, there is one main issue with the DJI Agras MG-1 for the potential consumer: its extreme price. At around $15,000, it will cost a significant amount to any person and/or corporation willing to purchase the drone. However, our drone is available for $4,312.88, which is significantly less than the DJI Agras MG-1. This gives us a much bigger advantage over any competitor, for any consumers shopping for price. We will also have more than four times the flight time, meaning, not just is our drone significantly less expensive, but has a significantly better cost to flight time ratio than the DJI Agras MG-1.
Target Market Assessment
The environment in Urban cities is extremely overlooked, as most people would focus only on the landscaping. All plant life in urban areas are not being monitored, and this has been a growing problem. Densely populated cities such as New York City and Los Angeles are rarely surveyed, and designing a drone specifically for them would allow this untapped market to be put into the limelight. Our drone perfectly appeals to these areas, along with any cities that are too densely populated for regular field-survey drones to investigate. By purchasing our drone, we will work towards a more developed society, giving nature a chance to unleash its full potential.
Profitability Analysis
Our proposed hexacopter has several advantages over similar products available on the market, despite having a higher initial cost. The increased durability and reliability, included within our initial cost, offset the long-term costs incurred for repairs and unit replacements which plague the traditional quadcopter models. Our six propellered design is safe in the event of a single or double engine failure, particularly critical in urban environments where a drone crash would likely incur collateral damage, and stable in flight. These added benefits of our product should easily outweigh the relatively expensive cost per unit.
Fixed (Initial) Costs
The estimated cost of just the parts of our hexacopter comes to approximately $4,312.88 per full unit while buying individual parts from retailers. The cost of parts will ultimately be decreased once our drones are being manufactured on a larger scale since the quantity should keep costs law and sales to manufacturers are consistently cheaper than sales made to consumers. All individual parts costs can be located in 2.3 Selection of System Components and broken down by purpose and quantity. Each component of the design is also selected as a balance between quality (encompassing durability, power, and maneuverability) and cost. Therefore, the choice of each component can be justified by identifying the purpose and selecting a part to purchase which can adequately perform this function in the context of our design.
Some of the more expensive parts include the Tarot 690 Folding Carbon Fiber Frame, available at $119. A carbon fiber frame is essential to our design because one of the relatively few drawbacks of a hexacopter design is the weight of additional propellers and motors. A carbon fiber frame is durable enough to support the weight of our design, so our team decided the large cost was warranted in order to preserve the benefits of our design (mainly consistency of motion and lack of repair costs). The overall most expensive single component of our design is the DYS Marcia 3 Axis Brushless Gimbal for GoPro available for $315.99. This cost is fairly standard for a GoPro gimbal and this gimbal is significantly steadier than earlier versions released for GoPro. A gimbal will be necessary for our drone to perform the tasks identified by the design problem, so other competitive designs will likely contain similar components. Additionally, the 6 motors combined account for $759.94, a majority of the cost in components of our hexacopter. These motors are necessary to ensure that our drone has redundancy in the case of motor failure. Each additional motor also provides for extra cargo capacity, enabling a more extensive sensor suite and enhancing our hexacopter’s capability. Therefore, this incurred cost is likely shared by market competition and won’t be influential in the cost analysis of each design.
As explained earlier, the initial cost of our design is specifically higher in order to produce a high-quality product which won't require frequent repairs or suffer significant malfunctions. The costly components will be ultimately offset by the cost which would be incurred by designs which need frequent repairs and last for shorter periods of time.
Operational Costs
Our product will require operational costs in the form of personnel to maintain the drone, fly the drone, and analyze the data obtained from the GoPro camera. Our product is specifically designed to require minimal repairs, but in the event of an unanticipated error, a technician onhand will be necessary while the drone is operating. However, this work should be relatively low cost, since the person making these repairs would likely be part of the design team responsible for constructing the drone, and this duty would only be a supplementary function of an otherwise full-time employee (paid approximately $20 an hour). The drone flight supervisor/pilot is the most costly employee required; however, a drone license is obtainable in the state of CT for anyone over the age of 16 at a price of only $150. While the specific legal requirement is easy to obtain, our pilot requires experience due to the volatile nature of flying in an urban environment, and this skill set is both more marketable and exclusive. Experienced drone controller in similar roles are typically paid between $30-40 an hour but only work part-time when flights are scheduled. The estimated cost for both these employees per year comes to $59,800. The data analysis role can be freelanced to experts online, saving costs for the company and bolstering community engagement with our project.
Pricing Analysis
Our unit pricing is based around the typical scale of mid-sized cities (population 100,000-175,000) in CT. Cities like New Haven (population 131,000), Hartford (population 123,000), and Bridgeport (population 147,000) are ideal candidates for Volantem Machina, seeing as the support midsized urban populations, as well as a blend of urban city streets and suburban communities. These cities also have large quantities of urban biomass to be surveyed and cataloged by our drone. The Volantem Machina has a range of 2 square miles, and can survey this area is approximately 4 hours of flight. Consequently, every week a single unit (flying every day for 8 hours per day) can survey 28 square miles. This time frame should be acceptable to the municipalities eligible for our project, and cities like new haven span under 28 square miles in terms of area, reducing time. If this timescale is acceptable, a single drone should be appropriate for each CT city; however, additional units can be introduced for cities looking to survey plantlife fast or with a larger area. Our plan is to begin in CT’s major cities the first year, before expanding to part of MA and NY in the following years. This phased integration ensures our drone technology, operating teams, and management are effective and experienced before expanding to larger urban centers. Adding together the cost of personnel, the physical mechanics of the drone, and $500 for potential repairs, brings the entire cost of the project to $65,000 for a city (provided they intend to use Volantem Mechina for an entire year). Charging this initial deposit for repairs allows our team to provide replacement parts free of charge, and since it is extremely unlikely this entire $500 will be used, the remaining money in this fund can be allocated to the Volantem Machina company/design team.
Regulatory Analysis
Volantem Machina meets all federal and state regulations for the production and operation of UAS. These federal guidelines can be located in 14 CFR 107, and each regulation is thoroughly accounted for in our design plan. CT requires commercial drone operators to obtain a license to ensure competency in a variety of safety-related scenarios. In addition to this Connecticut requires commercial drone pilots to pass the FAA’s Aeronautical Knowledge Test to obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate. To fly a drone as a hobbyist in the state of Connecticut (i.e. for fun/pleasure) you are required to register your drone with the FAA and follow the FAA’s Special Rule for Model Aircraft. To fly a drone as a government employee in the state of Connecticut (i.e., for a police or fire department) you may either operate under the FAA’s Part 107 rule or obtain a federal Certificate of Authorization (COA). According to the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Connecticut General Assembly, Connecticut has one statewide law concerning the use of drones in the state known as SB 975 // 2017. This law prohibits Connecticut municipalities from regulating drones, but it does allow a municipality that is also a water company to enact ordinances that regulate or prohibit the use or operation of UAS over the municipality’s public water supply and land. DEEP §23-4-1 // 2017 is the law instituted by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection which states that the use of drones is prohibited at Connecticut State Parks, State Forests or other lands under the control of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection unless specifically authorized by the Commissioner in a Special Use License. All drone pilots operating commercially in the state of Connecticut are subject to the FAA’s Part 107 rules.
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What Our Patrons Will Receive
$1-$24: Logo/Name on Website
$25-$49: Logo/Name on our shirt advertising the patron
$50-$99: Large logo/name on our shirt and a logo/name on our drone
$100-$499: Primary logo/name on our shirt, a name/logo on our banner and a large logo/name on the top of our drone
$500+: Logo/Name on the front of the shirt and our banner, and a logo/name anywhere on the drone (Your Choice)