Sunflower Labs Security: The Beehive Drone-in-a-Box Solution

Sunflower Labs Deploys Beehive System Security Solution to Partners

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Today, autonomous security systems innovator Sunflower Labs Inc. announced the distribution of its Beehive System to partners ADT Inc, 10 Federal Self Storage, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), and Security Robotics Development & Solutions GmbH.

The Beehive System is a drone-in-a-box solution capable of expanding any security or video surveillance system. The system consists of a fully autonomous “Bee” drone and a compact “Hive” base station. The Hive houses the brains of the system and processes and analyzes all incoming data using state-of-the-art machine learning and neural networks, as well as rapidly recharges the Bee.

A lightweight drone built for autonomous flight, the Bee features high-quality video capture, rapid recharging, and reliable landing even in adverse weather conditions. It is able to respond to activity on any part of the property, within 30 seconds on a 4-acre property and 90 seconds on a 10-acre property. The Bee operates by autonomously planning a safe flight path around the pre-mapped property, detecting unexpected obstacles, and performing a “security sweep” before landing back in the Hive, all without any need for manual drone operation.

Founded in 2016, Sunflower Labs first announced its products at CES in 2020. The company offers next generation autonomous security for commercial, industrial and residential properties. Sunflower Labs is part of All Turtles, a product studio that supports and builds products that positively impact the culture of distributed work and life.

“We are in the midst of a profound disruption of the security industry,” said Alex Pachikov, CEO and Co-Founder of Sunflower Labs. “Not only has it become impractical to provide in-person security, but it has also become very difficult to recruit personnel. As a result we are seeing numerous inbound requests from every sector in the industry who are looking to deploy our remote autonomous security system to address these challenges.”

Sunflower Labs has so far secured $15 million in funding from General Catalyst, Stanley Ventures, Gentian Investments, PBFS, Drone Fund, and All Turtles.

“We are happy to announce that we have shipped the Sunflower Labs Beehive system to a diverse set of industries, allowing them to deliver real-time observation across larger areas, at a fraction of the cost,” Pachikov continued.

“Theft costs us tenants, payments of insurance claims, bad reviews, and a poor reputation,” commented 10 Federal CEO Brad Minsley. “It can be very difficult to combat and we think the Sunflower system, coupled with our night watchman, can be a game-changer in our ability to combat the issue.”

“Robots and drones will integrate more and more into our lives,” said Security Robotics CEO Aleksej Tokarev. “We will soon treat them as we treat smartphones and cars today. They will be part of our life.”

“The Sunflower Labs’ drone is the first of its kind that we are using at SBB and the latest addition to our growing number of drones,” said Andreas Hoffman, Drone Projects Engineer at Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB. “We are currently testing it as a mobile surveillance system over our own premises to prevent theft and trespassing, and we’re also looking to see if it might be beneficial for other use cases.”

Read more about Sunflower Labs’ innovative home security system:

• SunFlower Labs Wants Drones to Protect Your Home
• Industry Veteran Colin Guinn on the Commercial Drone Industry, New Regs, and Why Sunflower Labs Will Be the DJI of Their Space 
• Sunflower Labs wants to be the ADT of Home Drone Surveillance: An Interview with the Founder
• Stanley Black & Decker in Partnership with Sunflower to Deliver Drone Home Security Solutions

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.