HOVERAir AQUA seeks to make underwater drones cool once more

Underwater drones as soon as seemed like the following frontier in client tech. Again within the late 2010s, firms like PowerVision and Chasing Innovation promised that common folks would quickly be livestreaming sea turtles, shipwrecks, and coral reefs with the identical ease as flying a DJI Phantom. They raised thousands and thousands by crowdfunding campaigns, constructed modern prototypes, and hyped the thought of the “GoPro of the ocean.”

After which? For essentially the most half, the market sank.

Whereas client aerial drones soared into mainstream use, underwater drones hit challenges with physics, practicality, and pricing. Wi-Fi doesn’t transmit properly by water, that means most of these “untethered” drones nonetheless wanted buoys or cables. Battery life was restricted. Costs hovered within the $1,000–$2,000 vary.

Many crowdfunded campaigns to promote them by no means delivered on the promised expertise — or fizzled completely. That’s why I don’t often cowl crowdfunding campaigns right here on TheDroneGirl. Too usually, they’re aspirational prototypes that by no means materialize — or, in the event that they do, the ultimate product doesn’t reside as much as the slick pitch movies.

However this week’s information gave me pause. As a result of this time, a giant identify in drones is testing the waters with a kind of underwater drone that’s higher than one I’ve ever seen earlier than.

Enter Zero Zero Robotics: from skies to seas

Zero Zero Robotics — the corporate greatest identified for the HOVERAir collection, which I’d argue is likely one of the closest client rivals to DJI — simply introduced its personal aquatic play: the HOVERAir AQUA. Not like the standard underwater ROV, AQUA isn’t a tethered submarine. As a substitute, it’s pitched because the world’s first 100% waterproof self-flying digital camera. Assume: a palm-sized aerial drone that doesn’t panic if it takes a dunk. It’s designed to comply with you hands-free over water when you paddleboard, jetski, snorkel, or fish—mechanically monitoring you and capturing cinematic third-person pictures.

The specs are spectacular on paper, together with:

• 4K/100 fps slow-motion digital camera
• 1/1.28” CMOS sensor and hydrophobic lens
• 23 minutes of flight time
• Light-weight (beneath 249 grams, so no FAA registration required)
• Degree 7 wind resistance (as much as 33 knots)
• Monitoring speeds as much as 34 mph
• Greater than 15 automated flight modes, together with “snorkel mode” and “gimbal mode.”

There’s even an adjunct referred to as the Lighthouse, worn in your arm, that acts like a controller with a built-in “digital tether.” Plus, it has a tiny built-in AMOLED display screen for reside preview and playback while not having a telephone.

Now right here’s the kicker: it launches August 21, 2025 on crowdfunding website Indiegogo with an early fowl worth of $999.

The crowdfunding shock: Zero Zero turns to Indiegogo

That is the place issues get fascinating. Zero Zero Robotics isn’t some two-person startup chasing a dream.

Based in 2014 by Stanford PhDs MQ Wang and Tony Zhang, the corporate has greater than 170 patents and backing from main VCs like IDG and ZhenFund. They already make probably the most recognizable client drone options to DJI. That’s the HOVERAir X1 line, which has advanced right into a household of drones together with the HoverAir X1 PRO and HOVERAir X1 PROMAX.

So why flip to Indiegogo? Indiegogo tends to be the place scrappy newcomers go once they can’t safe conventional funding — or the place manufacturers take a look at curiosity earlier than scaling.

However HOVERAir has used Indiegogo earlier than, together with with its HOVERAir X1 Professional launch. With that,  Zero Zero Robotics served as an inaugural accomplice in Indiegogo’s Delivery Assure program. With that, Indiegoog says that — if the shipper doesn’t ship their product as promised inside a selected timeframe — backers (aka those that pre-ordered) are eligible for a full refund.

Nonetheless, I query if a big-name firm with an current distribution community shouldn’t want crowdfunding to deliver a product to market. That makes me curious whether or not Zero Zero is utilizing AQUA as extra of an idea validation train than a assured mass-market launch.

Both means, it’s notable that certainly one of DJI’s closest client rivals feels the necessity to fund its new flagship by this route. It says one thing about how robust the drone {hardware} market has turn into — and maybe, how cautious even established firms must be when coming into area of interest classes like waterproof flying cameras.

So… what occurred to underwater drones?

In some ways, Zero Zero’s AQUA is much less an “underwater drone” than it’s a waterproof drone. It doesn’t plunge into the deep to map shipwrecks like earlier ROVs — it floats, flies, and survives splashes whereas monitoring you from the floor. That’s a key distinction. The shift exhibits how the trade has discovered from earlier missteps. As a substitute of promising deep-sea exploration in a consumer-friendly package deal (which physics makes tough), AQUA goals to resolve a less complicated, extra relatable downside: getting hands-free drone footage if you’re close to or on the water. For content material creators, paddleboarders or households on the lake, that is perhaps the candy spot underwater drones missed.

Underwater drones and the longer term

With underwater drones, most sank beneath the load of their guarantees. However Zero Zero Robotics’ AQUA represents a intelligent pivot: don’t dive deep — float the place the enjoyable is.

Will AQUA succeed? That depends upon whether or not customers are prepared to shell out $999 for what’s primarily a water-resistant flying selfie cam. And given the Indiegogo route, there’s nonetheless the standard caveat: irrespective of how large the model, crowdfunding at all times comes with danger. But when any firm can pull it off, it would simply be Zero Zero.

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