About

The ocean receives solid waste from human activities, distributing the load widely, but not evenly. Floating marine plastics are a threatening problem for the world’s oceans. Marine plastic debris is tied to plastic production, which has grown exponentially over the last 70 years, from 1.7 million tonnes in 1950 to 322 million tonnes in 2015. It is estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic entered the ocean from terrestrial sources in 2010 alone, with rivers contributing to 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste. Remote sensing is one of the tools necessary for the detection of floating marine plastics because of the extensive area coverage and frequent observation. While floating plastics are reported in high concentrations in many places around the globe, no referencing dataset exists either for understanding the spectral behavior of plastics in the real environment or for calibrating remote sensing algorithms and validating their results.

Solution & Product

Our solution is the creation of a UAS platform technology for systematically mapping natural phenomena like marine litter density, coastal erosion, oil spill detection, and other custom UAV data maps. In terms of marine litter debris, our solution is the detection and monitoring of marine litter (ML) on coastal zones by creating ML density maps from data taken by Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and analyzed with the use of our sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. Our system is semi-autonomous, and we can create different types of density maps based on customers’ needs.

Innovation & Scalability

Our main business idea is the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems equipped with true-color RGB, multispectral, and hyperspectral sensors for close remote sensing to map emerge phenomena (like marine litter) in the coastal environment. Quantification includes state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques for observing in combination with artificial intelligence algorithms to detect and to derive spatiotemporal geoinformation for emerging phenomena in the coastal zone. This process lies in the creation of orthophoto maps to spatially define, measure, and quantify the selected environmental phenomenon.

Traction & achievements

The company has been awarded a grant from EIT Digital Venture Program 2021 and is a member of the Science Agora Funding program 2022. In addition, SciDrones is an alumnus of ACEin incubator in Athens and has just registered as a member of the Orange Grove Incubator of the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Athens.

Team & Why Us

SciDrones P.C. is a spin-off company from the University of the Aegean (2022). It is a private startup company located in Lesvos Island, Greece, founded in 2021, by a team of experts in coastal mapping. The founders have vast experience in remote sensing, geoinformatics, and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) technologies. SciDrones is a natural result of 7 years of intensive research on UAS technology and visualization of the geoinformation in the coastal area. SciDrones' main business focus is the mapping and quantifying of emerging coastal phenomena through state-of-the-art sensors. Quantification includes artificial intelligence algorithms and dedicated spatiotemporal visualizations. SciDrones analytical tools transform remote sensing data into real Information that drives decision-making. The company has been awarded a grant from EIT Digital Venture Program 2021 and is a member of the Science Agora Funding program 2022. In addition, SciDrones is an alumnus of ACEin incubator in Athens and has just registered as a member of the Orange Grove Incubator of the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Athens.

Funding Needs

Our team is open to discussion talks with any Venture Capital fund that may be interested in investing in our company.