Arthur Erickson: Hylio Agricultural Drones
Arthur Erickson is the CEO and Cofounder of Hylio, a Texas-based drone manufacturer that helps farmers apply pesticides to their crops without having to use tractors or get too close to the harsh chemicals. Starting his company in his junior year of college in 2015, Arthur had quickly realized that he had a passion for making drones. They were easy to iterate with, easy to modify, and if one crashed in testing, easy to repair. While he initially considered dropping out of college to pursue his dream with his friends, he decided to complete his degree in aeronautical engineering and put both his skills and college-provided resources to use, making his first drone prototype with his group of friends/cofounders.
Upon graduating from The University of Texas at Austin in 2017, Erickson and his friends immediately went to work trying to market their very first prototype. Their first attempt took place in Costa Rica for a small grocery delivery company called GoPato. Instead of selling their drone (and future models) to the company, they instead chose to lease them out for service and make profit from a commission on each delivery. this kept their technology in their hands, and allowed them to keep control upon, manage, repair, and innovate their drones without having to jump through any unnecessary hoops. While this first attempt of bringing their product to market provided them with interesting data and good hands-on experience, Hylio eventually terminated their partnership with GoPato because the commissions they were making weren’t paying the bills and weren’t allowing them the headroom for innovation they required.
While in Costa Rica, Erickson noticed how the famers of the land had to spread pesticides by hand. The terrain most farms sat on was plenty fertile, but unfortunately too rugged for any type of wheeled or tracked vehicle to traverse with ease. It was here where Erickson realized a new niche Hylio could insert themselves into. Immediately, Erickson and his team began retrofitting their prototype drones with sprayer attachments underneath the propellers, added a pump and pesticide tank, and began testing. With some tweaking to their navigation systems, and some work done to make the drone reliable, Hylio had successfully turned their once grocery delivery drone into a high tech, airborne crop spraying and monitoring system. Upon showing off their reworked prototype at an agricultural trade show, their initial prototype drone sold while still being displayed. The demand for their product was there, and Erickson finally knew he found what he was looking for.
Since then, Hylio has created multiple sizes of agriculturally focused drones for all different kinds of tasks. Erickson hopes that he can take his company to the next level with more autonomous drones that can work on the ground for closer surveying of crops in the near future. Arthur Erickson’s story teaches us about the blessing that is iteration and reminds us that even when you seeming have failed, you’re certain to have learned something new along the way.
With an uncle of mine being a farmer, I may just have to tell him about this company. Who knows. maybe I’ll get some first-hand experience and an up-close look at one of these amazing machines.