In this special sponsored episode of Curiosity Daily, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer talk to Brent Lessard, the founder and lead project manager on rFlight, and Thierry Marin-Martinod, VP Engineering & CTO at TE Connectivity and a subject matter expert who is the liaison with rFlight, to help you learn about the engineering partnership advancing innovation in the sky. Learn more about TE Connectivity and rFlight: TE Connectivity — https://curiosity.im/2Ys94RC rFlight — http://www.rflight.org/ The GoFly Competition Will Put Humans in the Sky — https://curiosity.im/2I2fUHE An Award-Winning Hyperloop Company Sets Its Sights on Human Flight — https://curiosity.im/2HQTclT Here's Why So Many Breakthroughs Come Out of Big Competitions — https://curiosity.im/2YA1fcS If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
In this special sponsored episode of Curiosity Daily, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer talk to Brent Lessard, the founder and lead project manager on rFlight, and Thierry Marin-Martinod, VP Engineering & CTO at TE Connectivity and a subject matter expert who is the liaison with rFlight, to help you learn about the engineering partnership advancing innovation in the sky.
Learn more about TE Connectivity and rFlight:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/advancing-innovation-with-te-connectivity-and-rflight-special-episode
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi, I'm Cody Gough, with a special sponsored podcast episode from curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about a $2 million technology challenge to develop a personal flying device. And the innovative minds competing to win.
CODY GOUGH: This episode is sponsored by TE Connectivity. And we'll be talking to a couple of special guests today, about how this project reflects a new age of co-creation. You'll learn about how innovation is being pushed forward by a diverse team of people from all walks of life, how they got together to be part of this incredible passion project, and how their work is combining the best of both worlds of a virtual and physical engineering.
ASHLEY HAMER: Before we dive into what the team is doing, let's set the stage. The challenge we're talking about is Boeing's GoFly competition. Its goal is to revolutionize flight with a single--person flight vehicle that can integrate easily into the average commuter's life. In order for a design to qualify for this competition, it has to be capable of vertical takeoff and landing or VTOL. It also needs to be safe, quiet, and ultra compact. And most of all, it needs to be user-friendly, and thrilling to fly.
CODY GOUGH: So yeah, they're building a personal flying machine.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes, one team vying for this prize is a group called rFlight. They're the same team behind rLoop which was one of the top contenders during the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. That was a challenge to build a high-speed transportation system from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The team came together online. After bouncing Hyperloop ideas off of each other on Reddit, these engineers and design enthusiasts partnered with the engineering company, TE Connectivity, in 2015, to develop their ideas in full. Now they're turning their attention a little higher to design a motorcycle of the sky, as they call it. With the continued support of TE Connectivity.
CODY GOUGH: Now that you've got some background, let's dive into how the team is making this all happen, with a couple of special guests. Brent Lessard is the founder and lead project manager on rFlight, and Thierry Marin-Martinod is a TE subject matter expert who is the liaison with rFlight fleet. Along with their expertise, let's satisfy some curiosity.
TE's mission is to create a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future, which sounds pretty great to me. So Thierry, tell us about what kind of technology you're building, and how soon it will impact people's daily routine?
THIERRY MARIN-MARTINOD: Yeah, so it's a wide question. TE Connectivity is a world leading provider for sensors and connectors, so we are in the middle of every systems and connection in the world. And sometimes people, they don't realize we can be in your appliances, in your car, in the plane. We are everywhere, so. Because of the increase of the traffic, of the information, of the data, we are in the heart of every new development. Could be through copper wire and fiber optic, or RF transmission, wireless transfer. You have always TE solutions.
We are also expert to package all these solutions in material. So we have a group of experts working on higher temperature material, which can support higher vibration, higher voltage. We are from deep under the sea, in the oil and gas, to very high in the sky with satellites applications. And both area, commercial and military business.
We are also developing a lot of technology which are getting smaller. We are in the miniaturization, driven by different factors. The first one is easy, it's the volume and the weight. As you can see in the cars, we are bringing more and more sensors and functions in your car. So we have to make our products smaller. For the aircraft industry, military or commercial, same thing, the weight is the enemy. So we have to develop solutions for lighter material, lighter solutions.
Sensors, maybe you don't know, but TE Connectivity is a world leader in sensors. And because of the switch of the self-driving car, self flying car, drones, robots, autonomous artificial intelligence, everything require more and more sensors. There is a global trend that when you remove human from a place, you have to bring more sensors to replace.
I would say, the human person body is so powerful with our own sensors, our brain, intelligence, with our eyes, our ears, our smell, our hands, we can touch and appreciate things. Everything that has to be replaced by a sensor which will bring information, a lot of data which will be analyzed and will allow this system to take decision without the support of a human.
And Another area, because linked to this high volume, high production, TE has to work on the new process. How can we build faster? That's a challenge. How can we install faster? That's another challenge. So recently, we developed a quick bonding solution. We call it the Energy Assisted Bonding to install almost any type of bracket on any type of structure within a few seconds. That's the kind of development we are doing within TE. Innovation, that's why it is in the top 100 most innovative company for, I think it's now eight years, consecutive.
CODY GOUGH: Wow. You are literally creating the eyes and ears of robotics, and of different devices. That's some great background on TE. And so Brent, I want to turn to you, and ask, what is rFlight? And who are the engineers working on the project?
BRENT LESSARD: Sure, thanks for having me. rFlight is a project that was started by the rLoop community. And it was initially a response to an incentive competition from GoFly, which was to develop a personal aviation device that is safe, quiet, compact, and economical. And the primary driver was to allow the user or the pilot to be able to experience flight. And we do that by eliminating any barrier to the environment. So we're not enclosing them in a cockpit or another enclosure. And during normal operation, the vehicle is actually not in the line of sight of the pilot.
So we started with about 35 members of the rLoop community focused on this project. But we have a variety of other members who pop in, give input and advice. They all come from a very diverse background and geographies. We have members in North America and South America, in Western Europe and Eastern Europe, in Asia, and in Australia. And the diversity is also in terms of the education, the experience, and the cultural backgrounds that everybody brings to the project.
So our experience has been that this diversity and inclusion of varying voices really helps to accelerate the innovation process. And the motivations for all of those individuals, being a volunteer community, is to really see the acceleration of innovation and a output for their creativity, for their knowledge, and their experience. That they might not be able to apply in their normal work days.
Maybe a little background on the rLoop community. The rLoop community started about four years ago now, which was-- we started on an entry into the Hyperloop competition that was hosted by SpaceX. And we attracted between 7 and 800 members to work on that particular project. And TE has always been a big supporter of rLoop, both with that project and with this project. And so the rFlight flight project is one of many that the community has now decided to direct their knowledge and expertise towards.
ASHLEY HAMER: Have you ever noticed how many big competitions there are for tech and science breakthroughs? It's not just the GoFly competition, and the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. There's also the XPRIZE, which over the years has challenged innovators to build private spaceships, super-efficient vehicles, oil cleanup solutions, and even a Star Trek-inspired tricorder. And those are just the high-profile contests you read about in the news. There are a lot more out there.
In fact, competitions have been changing the world for centuries. In 1714, the British government put up a prize of 20,000 pounds for anyone who could come up with an accurate measure of longitude. Which led to the development of a super accurate clock. Less than a century later, Napoleon Bonaparte offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could come up with a novel method of food preservation, and canning was born. Get a big prize and a lot of passionate people together, and you can make big breakthroughs.
CODY GOUGH: How were you able to combine all this expertise from all around the world to advance innovation? What does the collaboration actually look like? And what have the challenges been?
THIERRY MARIN-MARTINOD: On our side, it's a volunteering process. So TE members can work on this project after our day, so at the end of the day or during the weekend. And it requires some adjustment. But the principal of this rFlight team is that you have different communities. And you can apply for the community which fits with your area of passion or expertise, and then you have dedicated meetings associated with this community. So it's just flexible.
For people who are not familiar with the engineering world. You have specialty around mechanical engineers, they work on structure and packaging. You have software guys that will develop the AI or function, which will allow our project to have an easy flight, or easy drive, easy ride. You have all the electronicians, we will need electronicians to manage the power of these drones. You can have aero expert for the fans which would be used on this project. You have different aspects of thermal engine or version with electrical power.
So you can be in this technical world. Then you can be on the project management. You can be on the marketing side. Everybody can collaborate with its own area of expertise. It's not a big constraint. I mean, you have to adapt, it's a different world. I can say a few words on the TE side, the motivation of working in such an environment, it's because it address everything which is flying between low-level on the ground at the higher-level.
So for TE, it's a big opportunity to learn more about our customers. And somewhere it's a way of becoming a customers, and learn what are the constraints and the difficulties. And that will help us maybe to develop better products for the future. So it's a very educative process for all our engineering team.
CODY GOUGH: Brent anything you want to add to how the collaboration works? And what challenges you've been up against?
BRENT LESSARD: I would say there was a steep learning curve for us in being able to facilitate this type of collaboration on a global scale, and on systems that are complex and interdependent like this. But that was part of the fun and the creativity that our community created over the past four years. As Thierry mentioned, we structure the communities by discipline, really. And we allow people to collaborate in whatever capacity that they desire.
So while you may come to the community as a mechanical engineer, for example. You may choose to spend your efforts on the project management side or on the marketing side, or in some other capacity. And what we found is that this really allows people to contribute within their self identified passions and motivations.
And this gives them the liberty to contribute in a manner that they are willing to. We have hundreds of members who contribute in their spare time and in their free time. So it's definitely a different type of atmosphere and environment. And we're lucky that we were able to partner with various groups to help with this process, including TE giving advice and guidance from their experts and their engineers.
But also the tools that we've been able to use have been largely developed and become available in the past five or so years. So we've always been playing with the latest and greatest to facilitate this type of work, when we're talking about just being able to meet virtually, being able to collaborate on documentation, to collaborate on engineering designs and assemblies. And we've actually started to integrate virtual and augmented reality systems to, again, shrink that distance between our globally distributed members.
So that process alone has been a lot of fun, and very interesting for our group beyond the innovative hardware and technology and systems that we actually get to develop. Just the organizational aspect of it, I think, as well, has been very innovative. And a lot of fun, frankly, to be involved with.
ASHLEY HAMER: That fun and passion is one reason competitions are so effective at spurring innovation. After all, most competitors are they're for reasons beyond money. For example, in 2013, MIT Sloan Management Review published a study finding that often, teams in competitions like these will end up spending more money than they could ever win. Since they take part more for things like the thrill of competing, the love of the project, and the potential boost in reputation they'd get from winning.
Another reason competitions are so effective is the flexible, diverse nature of the competitors. With that many teams, from that many backgrounds, you're going to end up with a much broader range of ideas. Not all of them will be as good as you'd get from a traditional office setting, but a rare few may be even better. That's the magic behind why these competitions exist.
CODY GOUGH: Tell us about the benefits of a new mode of transportation. And what kind of impact you're hoping to see with your clean energy innovations?
THIERRY MARIN-MARTINOD: Yeah, I mean, it's maybe not a final solution itself. I mean, as a reminder, we have a first focus on the contest. We are on the GoFly contest with this project. So as you know, we are competitors. We want to win. So we will do everything we can to score and win this challenge. So it's maybe not the project will be developed for a real application.
So let's say, it's an exercise, it's a support of technology breaks, which will help us to better understand the constraint of that kind of vehicles. And that way, we can create derivative of these lessons-learned, knowledge, expertise, to work on many different applications. Behind that, the goal is just to be creative. We know that cars, it's not a solution. Airplanes, it's magic when it's in the sky, most of the time, but airport connections-- I mean, there is a lot of drawbacks.
So I don't believe in the unique, wonderful, magic solution. It's like for the energy problem on this world. It will go through different alternative, different pilot roads. And that kind of transportation mode is, maybe, one of the solution. You may have the rLoop, the train flying in a tube. That's another solution. We are just trying to open the mindset and think differently. So at the moment, it's more seen as toys by a lot of people.
But seriously, with the team, we think about applications for the first responder, the 911. You can have an easy access, in case of earthquake, accidents, difficult accessibility in the mountains for safety operation. For sure, you may have some military application on another side. And then, in the future, we can think about the personal device to, for a short, commute. And yeah, it's just the beginning.
CODY GOUGH: It sounds like a pretty great future. And Brent, anything you want to add about the benefits? And what kind of impact you're hoping to see?
BRENT LESSARD: Sure. Well, I'll probably echo some of what Thierry said. But first and foremost, this is an entry in the competition, so we are constrained by the scoring, as well as the timelines of the competition. What we've done, though, is somewhat partition the work so that we are focused on achieving those timelines and milestones, and creating the most competitive vehicle that we can.
But we're also thinking about how it might be employed in a real-world environment. Carrying over a lot of the innovations that we are developing while liberating it from the constraints of the competition. A little bit about the device, maybe it's a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. So the user, when you're taking off, is in a vertical orientation. And once the vehicle achieves a certain altitude and speed, it will transition to a horizontal position. So the user will be in a kind of prone position on the vehicle.
As I mentioned, the vehicle, during normal operation, won't be in the line of sight of the user. So we're using some heads up display to feed relevant and necessary telemetry to the pilot. We're also incorporating a lot of sensors, so the vehicle understands how it's performing and what the environment around it-- that it's operating within. And we're using some autonomous capabilities to support the pilot, both during takeoff, landing, transition, and other flight modes.
Also, as Thierry mentioned, we're looking at potential applications in search and rescue, or first response in the event of a disaster. Or being able to quickly access or deliver first aid, or other medical goods to areas that might be difficult to access by normal vehicles. There are certainly applications for monitoring or surveillance or security. And there's also potential for autonomous drones, or unmanned autonomous vehicles. And being able to swarm those vehicles, so that they can increase the capacity that a single vehicle would be able to achieve.
And I think it's exciting to imagine a potential future where such devices might be accessible at a personal level. Reducing surface congestion, enabling , a new mode of flight as well as potential use just for personal recreation purposes. As well, a lot of these systems have peripheral uses. So the implications of the technologies that we're developing may spread wider and further than just the aviation industry.
CODY GOUGH: So you've got a diverse team from all over the place, from all walks of life. People joining for a sense of community, to be part of a passion project. You're combining virtual and physical engineering worlds to advance innovation. I mean, it's a really cool project. Are there any other takeaways you'd like our audience to walk away with? And what's the best way to keep an eye on this technology as it becomes available?
BRENT LESSARD: I think the greatest thing, for me, is seeing this group of people who, otherwise, may never have crossed paths coming together, unified by this vision of creating a better future. Diversifying our transportation options in such a altruistic way, really. And so all of the work that we've been able to achieve over the past 3 and 1/2 years is solely due to all of those individuals who have contributed their time, their knowledge, and their expertise towards our projects and towards this one.
It's also important, I think, that we foster this new collaborative mindset. And bringing together schools, startups, companies, multinationals, to develop real solutions to the challenges that we're all facing, either on a global or a local scale. So I think it's a really exciting time. It's really awesome to see such a collaborative project, and all of these parties coming together. And the best way to follow or to stay in touch is probably through our social media channels, on Facebook or Twitter, as well as our website. At rloop.org. And there's a list there of the other projects that we're involved with, as well.
CODY GOUGH: Thierry, is there anything else you wanted to add?
THIERRY MARIN-MARTINOD: Just to conclude around my company, too. TE is very happy to be part of this adventure for the reason of the product, the technology, I told you that. But it's also the value. We are very interested by this community, and the human adventure there. The value for TE, inclusion, diversity. That feeds very well, innovation. That's the value of TE. So it fits perfectly, the product, the technology, and the value of our company fits perfectly well with this team.
CODY GOUGH: It's a match made in heaven, right?
THIERRY MARIN-MARTINOD: Yep.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks for listening to this special episode of Curiosity Daily. Sponsored by TE Connectivity. Join us again, tomorrow, for another edition of the award-winning Curiosity Daily. To learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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