4 out of 5 bright young engineering backgrounds met at 42 Kocaeli’s 28-day Piscine phase. They quickly formed a team to bring their startup ideas to life. And they were among 46 startups selected from 850 applications in TOGG’s Mobility Acceleration Program held this year.
Additionally, the team that developed the TIAN UAV project, the first startup project of 42 Istanbul & 42 Kocaeli, includes Hazal Yılmaz, Bahadır Bolat, Muhammed Yasir Keleş and Niran Kalyoncuoğlu, whose paths crossed in 42 Kocaeli. Yusuf Bingöl is a young industrial engineer who joined the team from outside 42.
From left to right: Yusuf Bingöl, Sümeyye Çİftçi, Niran Kalyoncuoğlu, Rabia Ergin, Yasir Keleş, Bahadır Bolat
The TIAN UAV Project, which was accepted from the Mobility Program of TOGG, which is a global technology brand serving in the field of mobility in Türkiye, was among the 850 startups that entered the Mobility Acceleration Program organized in cooperation with TOGG and Bilişim Vadisi.
20 times faster cleaner Industrial UAV
The TIAN UAV project, one of the 46 accepted initiatives, entrusts the exterior cleaning of high-rise buildings such as towers and skyscrapers, which is one of the most risky business lines in terms of fatal occupational accidents, to industrial drones. The UAV, which will be developed autonomously with artificial intelligence technology, aims to minimize the security risk in exterior cleaning. The UAV, which is aimed to clean a 20-meter building in six hours, will be 20 times faster than traditional methods.
42 Kocaeli Team, participated in the trainings given by experts for eight weeks in the TOGG Mobility Acceleration Program, and got information on many topics from mobility to big data, from blockchain to cyber security, artificial intelligence, gamification, light materials sustainability, smart grids, and energy solutions in order to had the chance to develop their business idea.
Hazal Yılmaz, who graduated from Aksaray University, Department of Industrial Engineering in 2020, explained that the initial idea of the TIAN UAV project was a video they watched together as a team on the exterior cleaning of high-rise buildings. Currently a graduate student, Hazal is the most experienced name of the team in the field of entrepreneurship. Hazal describes her projects as follows:
“A video we watched on the exterior cleaning of high-rise buildings inspired us. While we were thinking about how to do this job more risk-free and more efficiently, the solution we came up with as a team was the idea of using an industrial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). We started to research this issue and we saw that there is no example of industrial UAV cleaning in Türkiye. Robots are mostly used in this sector. Exterior cleaning is basically done by methods such as traditional mountaineering, cleaning with a crane, and cleaning with a robot. Mountaineering and crane methods are both very costly and can cause fatal work accidents. Cleaning with a robot is disadvantageous in terms of building designs and also requires cost.
The biggest disadvantage of the UAV, which we suggested as a solution to this problem, was the battery. While thinking about this problem, we chose to get the battery from the ground, that is, the electricity needed for the UAV, with the contributions of Bahadır who has drone experience from Teknofest. Our UAV rises by taking water, cleaning materials and electricity through the cables on the ground, because the most critical point here is to keep the weight of the drone at a reasonable level.”
