Community Member of the Month: Scho&Müller

Making drones fly like birds: Meet Scho & Müller

An owl can guide past its prey almost without a sound. A drone, on the other hand, announces itself long before you see it. What if technology could learn from nature how to do more while using less? 

This is exactly the question that drives Scho&Müller, our Community Member of the Month for November. 

For this article, we spoke with founders Florian Scho (CEO, Business & Strategy) and Lena Müller (CEO, Product & Development) about what nature can teach engineers, what it takes to build a quieter drone, and what’s next for their technology.

Q: Florian and Lena, your journey together started in 2021 at the Westfälische Hochschule in Bocholt, and you were already running practical projects with companies while still studying. What was the moment you decided to turn applied bionics into a company, and what brought you to the Rhein-Main region?

A: Through our joint projects, we both realized that biomimetics can bring real progress and that it excites companies. Since we would have had to introduce ourselves and explain our approach with every application anyway, we decided to found a company after a few successful projects. Florian already had experience in self-employment from running his landscape gardening business. Lena had resolved at the start of her studies to later work as a project-based freelancer. Founding a company together was a natural step for us.

Pictured: Florian Scho (CEO, Business & Strategy) and Lena Müller (CEO, Product & Development) during their Pitch Battle at our Hessen Startup brunch in October.

Q: How would you explain applied bionics to someone who’s never heard of it?

A: Biomimicry combines mechanical engineering and natural science. The aim is to optimize technology and engineering by applying the principles of nature, or even to rethink them entirely. Well-known examples include Velcro and the lotus effect.

Q: What did you “borrow” from nature for your BiomimeticBlades, and how does it make drones quieter and more efficient?

A: We have harnessed principles from organisms that live in the air and in the water. To do this, we analyzed how nature breaks up and deliberately directs turbulence. After all, noise means energy loss, and no living creature can afford that.

Q: Who benefits most from quieter drones with longer range, and which markets are you focusing on first?

A: Quieter drones are especially interesting for the defense sector, because they can deliver situational awareness on site without being noticed, and thus contribute to greater security. They are also an advantage for mapping nature reserves, since animals are disturbed less and the data collected is therefore more accurate. Higher efficiency also means longer flight times on the same battery capacity. This is relevant for every market, for example transport and logistics. It is precisely there that a future market is emerging, one already familiar from the USA and Asia. Drones are part of everyday life there today, for example in parcel delivery and goods transport. Europe is on the threshold of this development, and as drone logistics expands, the demand for efficient, quiet propulsion systems is rising sharply. We are therefore not developing a niche solution, but a foundational technology for markets that will grow in the coming years.

Q: What are the next steps from prototype to series production, and where else could your blade technology be used?

A: Our next step is to set up our own injection moulding production. Currently, we manufacture 100 propellers per week, but using an expensive and labor-intensive process. With injection moulding, we aim to reduce unit costs and scale production to larger volumes.

The advantage of our development is that it can be applied to any type of rotor and is scalable. This also makes it possible to design heat pumps, wind turbines, ship propellers, and turbines to be quieter and more efficient.

Q: Besides your own product, you work as an engineering partner across many fields. How do client projects and product development fuel each other?

A: We gained a lot from our partner projects and were able to build what we learned directly into our propellers. In fluid mechanics in particular, experience and a broad database are crucial for development and analysis. In addition, there are the contacts we made through these projects, which still help us today.

Q: Some of your structures are only visible under a microscope. What does it take to manufacture at that scale, and how do you keep it affordable?

A: We currently manufacture using a Laser-Resin-Process. It is not the cheapest option, but it is very precise and flexible for prototypes. However, we only apply these structures for specific applications. Broader production is to take place using injection moulding in the future. 

Q: You took part in the TQ Fundraising Readiness Program and are now in the TQ Accelerator: IMPACT. What has this journey changed for you, and what impact do you want to have?

A: We learned a great deal from our mentors, especially when it comes to scaling. A big thank you once again! The impact we aim to have is to create more efficient technologies that deliver more progress while consuming less energy and fewer resources.

Q: What does a collaboration with you look like for a company that wants to test the blades?

A: When a company collaborates with us, we first adapt the principle to its specific use case. Depending on the need, we either set up production ourselves, or the partner acquires a (potentially exclusive) license and then manufactures the rotors in-house.

Q: Finally, if everything goes to plan, where will we hear (or not hear 😉 ) your blades in five years?

A: In five years, you will hear about our rotors mainly in the dual-use and B2B sectors. Our goal is to make a real difference with quieter and more efficient technologies. If everything goes according to plan, our first projects will have grown into long-term partnerships and our developments into established technologies.

At the same time, we want to show that genuine innovation can still come from Germany today, with our own research, development, and production under good working conditions. Our vision is to grow Scho&Müller into one of the world’s leading and most efficient companies in fluid mechanics and biomimicry, and to shape the technology of tomorrow using the principles of nature. 

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Did Florian and Lena get you hooked on biomimicry? 

Now’s your chance to meet them in person at the IMPACT FESTIVAL, on 25-26 November! 

Catch them in action on both days. Hear their pitch and join their panel discussion at the FESTIVAL STAGE on 25 November, and stop by their booth in the Exhibition Area (Booth 7.04) on 26 November. 

 Get your tickets now and save 22% with the community code FILIA22!