If I had to name one project that I am deeply attached to, it would be the development of AirSlider🄬Fi4, a closed environment inspection drone. This drone was created to observe and inspect areas that are not easily accessible to humans, such as inside sewage pipes. Its feature is that it does not break even if it hits an obstacle and can keep going. The inside of sewage pipes is a poor environment with water and filth, and conditions are not constant. For a drone that flies in the sky, it is possible to design it simply by considering the effects of wind, but for Fi4, we added unique innovations to the body material, shape, and flight control, assuming a variety of flight environments. In particular, the shape of the aircraft, which looks like an "amphibian ship" designed to both fly in the sky and float on water, is distinctive.

The development period was about one year.　After repeated trial and error and numerous prototypes, the product was put into practical use. It is being used in the water pipe inspection business of a development partner company and is also being used by an electric power company to inspect pipes at a power plant.

When working on such an unprecedented project, there are naturally times of uncertainty. The work requires speed as well as quality of deliverables, and there are also difficulties in project management when many parties are involved. Sometimes, clients suddenly come to us with difficult requests. Even so, I try not to say "no" as much as possible because it is natural for new ideas to emerge as development progresses. For requests that make sense toward our goal, I do not say, "We can't do it because it is not in the original specifications," but rather consider ways to make it a reality as much as possible.

The origin of this belief was my experience of flying the drone through trial and error with people engaged in sewer pipe inspection when I was involved in the development of Fi4. The closeness between developers and end-users may be a characteristic of ACSL. Because we want to make drones that can be used properly by people in the field, we are willing to respond to their requests to the maximum extent possible. We also believe that this attitude has led to ACSL gaining the trust of our client companies.

I believe that the current ACSL still has the spirit of a start-up. I think our strength lies in our ability to tackle new challenges with a sense of speed. On the other hand, we are also moving forward with plans to mass-produce industrial drones as our own product. While promoting a certain level of structuring for business expansion, we will maintain a culture of trial and error without being too tied down by complicated processes. I feel that we need people who can contribute to building such an organization now.

Among the projects, I am personally focusing on "delivery drones" to solve logistics problems such as chronic labor shortages. Various PoC (proof-of-concept) experiments are underway in Japan, but due to physical issues such as flight time, they have not yet been put to commercial use. I would like to move this situation forward. Currently, drones are mainly used for aerial photography, pesticide spraying, and infrastructure inspections, but there are still many other possibilities where drones can play an active role. Through trial and error, we will realize new functions and directly solve social issues. I believe that such an interesting job does not come along very often.