SYPAQ cardboard drone’s work in Ukraine wins Oz tech award

In what may rank as one of the most “no kidding” cases of creativity, determination, and inspiration being given its rightful due, Australian UAV company SYPAQ Systems has been awarded the country’s 2023 tech innovation award, based in large part to the major benefits its cardboard-made drones have afforded Ukraine’s defensive efforts.

SYPAQ won the 2023 AFR BOSS Most Innovative award discerned each year by the business daily Australian Financial Review. The paper selected the Melbourne-based company out of 700 candidates, citing the considerable affects in Ukraine of its Corvo precision payload delivery concept (PPDS) – comprised of a “cardboard drone (and) world-class guidance, navigation, and control systems, with running software designed by its own experts that can fly accurately and reliably in hostile environments.”

As DroneDJ was among the first to report back in March, SYPAQ began supplying its Corvo drones to cash-strapped Ukraine as an additional low-cost aerial asset to its defense of Russia’s invasion. The units come as Ikea-like flatpack parcels that are assembled from cardboard components and rubber bands, with lightweight propulsion and navigation tech tucked inside.

When the first $710,000 shipment from SYPAQ went out last spring, some observers sniggered at the idea of Ukraine’s use of repurposed consumer and homemade UAVs being further augmented by craft fashioned from old refrigerator boxes. After cardboard Corvos were credited by Russian observers as responsible for a damaging strike on an airbase deep inside Russia last month, any lingering guffaws turned to gushing.

Though SYPAQ also markets Corvos for non-military uses like deliveries – the plastic coating of the cardboard protecting the craft from hostile weather while transporting orders – the 500 drones it has supplied Ukraine have proven so militarily and cost effective that AFR viewed it as a natural for its annual tech innovation award.

Adding an extra bit of flavor to the distinction, the 31-year-old aviation firm beat out a host of startups also under consideration – a success AFR says changes the notion that disruptive innovation is the reserve of young outfits unburdened by the blinders of previous experience (and perspective).

“The technology industry is awash with startup entrepreneurs who insist that their product is life-changing and globally significant, when the reality is less exciting,” the paper said in announcing its award to the not-exactly-ancient drone maker. “The opposite is the case at SYPAQ Systems, a 31-year-old Melbourne-based engineering and technology company, which has created ingenious drone technology that has become an essential part of Ukraine’s attempts to repel the Russian army.”

In responding to the honor, SYPAQ general manager David Vicino told AFR the creation and success of its Corvo drones in Ukraine is a natural outgrowth of the company’s efforts to continually offer different thinking to the swiftly developing but often uni-directional UAV sector.

‘‘When my dad George left the Air Force to start SYPAQ in 1992 – and even when we established our sensors and surveillance business unit more than ten years ago – the idea of making a cardboard drone was not on the road map,’’ Vicino said. ‘‘Fundamentally, the Corvo PPDS was dreamed up because we hired smart people and created a culture of innovation, aimed at solving specific problems for our customers – exploring the art of the possible as part of this process.’’