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Hot meal delivery

Connect Robotics was founded by Eduardo Mendes and Raphael Stanzani in 2015. Eduardo was developing software to control and navigate unmanned aerial vehicles for his doctorate, and decided to turn it into a business.

Motivated by the potential of drones to transport life-saving goods, help people in distress and reduce the isolation of people living in remote regions, they are exploring the ‘last-mile delivery market’, of interest to medical distributors, postal services and retailers, who need fast and reliable deliveries at lower costs. 

“We can reduce costs by 40–60% with respect to conventional couriers, so our customers can offer quicker product delivery at a much lower cost,” says Raphael.

“The last-mile delivery can be done within 30 minutes of a purchase because our drones are not hampered by traffic jams, infrastructure under construction, or natural barriers in remote areas.”

Lisbon delivery

In May, Connect Robotics was called upon by the national postal service to deliver a parcel from Cabo Ruivo to their headquarters in Parquedas Nações, Lisbon. The 3 km journey had to be made at an altitude of 30 m because of a nearby airport – and it was completed in only seven minutes.

Eduardo and Raphael are building their delivery service using fully autonomous drones. A smartphone onboard controls the aircraft and connects it via the Internet to a cloud-based server which sets the flight path, follows the drone and shows its position in real time to the operator.

Connect Robotics has been hosted at ESA’s Business Incubator Centre Portugal since mid-2015.

“They are a great example of an idea from young entrepreneurs being tested as a new business case, and already proven its value,” stresses Carlos Cerqueira, the incubator’s coordinator.

“Working with ESA appeared to be a must,” emphasised Raphael. “We now use Galileo to improve the location accuracy and use space mission protocols and methodologies to analyse navigation, data gathering and communication.

“We gain confidence from clients and partners from being part of an ESA incubator, where we also receive technical and business support to build up our drone service.”