Construction Tech is Taking Off at Curiosity Lab: SkyMul Tests Rebar-Tying Drones at the Innovation Center

A SkyMul drone on rebar.

A SkyMul drone and the rebar it will scan and tie together before concrete is poured.

SkyMul is taking construction to new heights at Curiosity Lab’s Innovation Center. The young company, headed by CEO Eohan George, just took over half of our design lab to further develop its SkyTy drone solution, which aims to tie reinforcing bar (rebar) at construction sites almost two and half time faster, 32% cheaper and with 84% less labor than manual rebar tying.

We sat down with Eohan to learn more about his company, the SkyTy solution and why he chose to set up shop at Curiosity Lab.

Q: Tell us about SkyMul? When and why did you start the company?

A: We are robotics startup that, at first, primarily focused on drone deliveries for construction sites. Our original goal was to help facilitate delivering tools and supplies from one place on a construction site to another.

However, in 2018, we noticed many construction projects were bogged down by the cumbersome and inefficient task of tying rebar. We assumed that there must be some solution to this problem already in the market, but our research did not turn up any viable solutions.

So we applied for a Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to start solving this problem ourselves.

Q: How does SkyMul’s technology work?

A: Rebar is delivered in bundles and then carefully placed by workers at the appropriate spots around a construction site. However, before concrete can be poured over the rebar, the rebar must be tied together to keep the pieces from flying around. That is where SkyMul’s drones come in. Our drones can scan the area where the rebar is laid out, identify the right areas to tie the rebar together, and then do the physical tying, too.

Illustration of SkyMul drone attaching rebar.

SkyMul’s SkyTy drones can identify where rebar should be tied together and then do the physical tying, too.

Q: What types of buildings can SkyMul work on?

A: We can work on any slabs that are flat. Bridges, for example.

Q: What are your 2022 development goals?

A: We are working towards building the technology to enable a pilot program this year with a large rebar installer on the West Coast. They work a lot on towers, bridges and parking lots.

Q: How did you first hear about Curiosity Lab, and why did you choose to move SkyMul here?

A: I heard about Curiosity Lab through The Farm, which is an innovation hub at Comcast’s regional headquarters in Atlanta. SkyMul is an alumnus of their program. We moved to Curiosity Lab in February of this year.

We wanted to come to Curiosity Lab because the Innovation Center here has an open, indoor testing area that is perfect for us to test and develop our drones.

Visit SkyMul’s website to learn more about their SkyTy drone solution. The Innovation Center is the ecosystem hub of Curiosity Lab. Located adjacent to the autonomous vehicle test track, these 25,000 square feet of light, bright, colorful space are filled with energy. Early stage startups, tech companies testing new ideas, and corporate innovation teams developing their technologies discover one another here.

The Innovation Center at Curiosity Lab

Curiosity Lab’s 25,000-square foot Innovation Center houses organizations from tech startups to Fortune 500 tech teams.

Take a virtual tour of the Innovation Center here.

In addition to the Innovation Center, Curiosity Lab includes a 5G-enabled three-mile autonomous vehicle test track within an existing 500-acre technology park where thousands of people and vehicles interact with the track and its technology every day.

Testing Infrastructure is open to all technology companies from early stage startups to Fortune 500.

There is no cost to test.

Read more about Curiosity Lab’s real-world testing environment here.