Drone technology is saving businesses time.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Andrew Ashur, founder of Lucid Drone Technologies, started the company in 2018. He told WCNC Charlotte that he started the company after seeing a window washer on a platform on a windy day.
“It was a windy day and you saw the platform just got caught in the wind and started slamming into the side of the building,” recalls Ashur. “You see these window washers hanging on railings for life. I remember thinking, how can we find a way to use technology to make this work safer and more efficient?”
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Ashur, who was then majoring in economics and Spanish at Davidson College, started learning how to build industrial drones.
“[It] You can have a physical impact on the world around you by performing some kind of productive, labor-intensive task, such as cleaning,” he said.
At the height of the pandemic, the facilities team at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium heard about the company.
“They had a nice facility, but there were a lot of seats that needed to be sanitized,” Ashur said. “They’re like, ‘How are we going to do this effectively?’ Because they have a lot of events. They say, ‘We know you guys build drones to do things like cleaning. Think you guys can sanitize seats?’ “
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The easiest way to think about the operation, Ashur says, is to tether the drone to a cleaning system on the ground with a hose.
Brian Queitzsch, an engineer at Lucid Drone Technologies, said: “A lot of our customers have no experience flying drones before getting one of these, so we wanted it to be as easy to use as possible.”
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Frequent use requires FAA certification, Ashur said. Companies tend to retrain existing employees or hire drone pilots for projects that require rental drones, he said.
Lucid also caught the attention of equipment rental company Sunbelt, which officially launched the partnership earlier this month.
He said they are focusing on buildings with 10 storeys and below. Rental packages start at $29,000. The company reported profits in the tens of thousands of dollars, Ashur said.
“The bottom line is they’re replacing inefficient and expensive equipment,” Ashur said.
Contact Jane Monreal jmonreal@wcnc.com then follow her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.