One of the largest of these barriers is the lack of a unified operating system for unmanned cargo drones. SKYFchain intends to rectify this situation with the use of the SKYFchain Operating Platform (SKYFchain OP).
SkyFchain Solution
The stated plan is to develop and test this Operating Platform on an airborne industrial cargo drone to be named SKYF drone, this will allow for the development of unmanned cargo drone business processes that have not yet been developed or considered. The current version of the SKYF drone has a current maximum useful load of 400kg, with a maximum flight range of 350 km and 8 hours (with a 50kg load)
A vehicle with this sized payload could provide medium-level resupply to research outposts, resource extraction facilities or even towns or facilities facing emergency situation. SKYFchain believes that the value in airborne cargo drones is tremendous and could introduce savings on the order of 80% in situations such as resupplying on-shore oil rigs. Even if savings this large aren’t translated across all use cases, the potential savings for customers is quite significant.
In addition to fuel and labor costs, when the drone moves towards autonomy, it will be able to operate in conditions a human may not be able to, from long hours in the early morning to unpleasant weather conditions, the drone will almost always be more capable than a manned aircraft. This more regular servicing and resupply can make many situations safer and more comfortable. Other applications include security, mining, agricultural, and infrastructure, all work where relatively small, unmanned airborne platforms can provide information or supplies to very specific locations and cut down on travel time or sending workers into dangerous situations.
As the airborne cargo drone market matures, SKYFchain intends to move into ground transportation and ocean shipping. Automated trucking offers many benefits over manned trucks, including significant fuel savings, increased safety and reduced labor costs. Shipping, similarly, offers many benefits over manned craft. Ships can be designed more effectively, as sensors are easier to place and require much less space than access for crewmen. Fuel savings are often significant, as machine learning and AI can adapt to changing situations much more quickly than human crew. Additionally, ships can begin to automate many of the basic functions of the vessel and focus on providing crew work that best takes advantage of human strengths.
One of the major benefits of SKYFchain in this position is that of transparency. There is no universal operating system for drones at the moment. There is no way for users to identify a drone’s state or safety information via standardized gateways. Additionally, interactions between the drone’s mechanical systems, operator, and software are completely opaque, causing insurance companies to charge high fees for these types of operations. Storing these interactions in an immutable blockchain presents the facts of the situation quite openly and clearly and could allow for insurance companies to open up to these kinds of products and services. The use of the blockchain may also help with convincing various regulatory bodies that these devices are safe and that regulations surrounding them should be lessened.
SKYFchain ICO Details
- Total Tokens: 1.2 Billion
- ICO-End Price per Token: ~.065 USD
- Pre-ICO Launch Date: March 1, 2018
- Pre-ICO Target: $1,000,000
- Pre-ICO Hardcap: $2,000,000
- ICO Launch: May 2018
- ICO Hardcap: $30,000,000
- ICO Stages
- Stage 1 - 30% Discount - 25 Million Tokens
- Stage 2 - 20% Discount - 20 Million Tokens
- Stage 3 - 10% Discount - 20 Million Tokens
- Stage 4 - 5% Discount - 20 Million Tokens
- Stage 5 - 0% Discount - 391.7 Million Tokens
Use Of ICO Funds:
Conclusion
SKYFchain is an exciting attempt to help build an industry that is just taking its first steps into the world. Autonomous and unmanned delivery craft are a huge potential market, crossing many industries and scenarios. From standard package delivery to emergency rescue operations, a drone can get places that a helicopter or other manned craft can’t or are prohibitively expensive or dangerous to use in certain applications. Using blockchain as a log of operations is quite brilliant and could allow for much higher security and safety, as there are many few chances for questions about how events occurred.
SKYFchain OP is ambitious, to be sure, as it looks to be the single authoritative operating platform for unmanned cargo drones, but they appear to have a good grasp of the challenges awaiting them. Seeing that a full forty-five percent of their ICO funds are going to R&D is exciting, as they know they have a long way to go to victory, but are placing themselves on the right path to get there.
Additionally, the long term plans for SKYFchain are even more exciting. Autonomous trucking and shipping could save billions of dollars and have seismic impacts on the transportation industry and every industry associated with it. These impacts could provide huge value to transportation companies and then on to consumers as Just-In-Time shipping becomes just a little bit tighter, fuel costs and labor costs fall, and accidents and injuries are significantly reduced. The use of unmanned and eventually autonomous cargo delivery also opens up exploration of new resources and increases the safety of remote outposts, whether resource extraction or research.
Links
Website
Whitepaper
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://icoveteran.com/skyfchain/