Technology description
Flapp is a modular hardware–software monitoring ecosystem designed to support proof-of-concept studies and laboratory-scale experimentation, with a clear pathway towards process upscaling. The system addresses a recurring limitation in both academic and industrial R&D: the lack of flexible, affordable, and adaptable monitoring and data acquisition tools that enable rigorous performance assessment during early-stage experimentation.
Proper monitoring is a key prerequisite for validating new ideas and transferring them from laboratory to full-scale applications. However, existing solutions are often either highly specialized and proprietary, or fully customized and costly, limiting accessibility, adaptability, and experimental creativity. Flapp responds to this gap by providing a sensor-agnostic, user-friendly platform, compatible with any mobile device (phone, tablet) that allows rapid deployment, configuration, and data collection across a wide range of experimental contexts.
Applications
Flapp is primarily intended for academic researchers, university laboratories, public research institutions, and R&D departments in private companies. Compared to existing monitoring solutions, Flapp positions itself between rigid proprietary systems and expensive fully engineered setups, offering a balance between ease of use, flexibility, and cost efficiency.
The initial development and validation of Flapp have focused on water-related processes, which require continuous, multi-parameter monitoring. Nevertheless, the system architecture is generic and transferable to other domains, including chemical engineering, biotechnology, food processing, environmental monitoring, and applied chemistry.
Competitive benefits
Flapp integrates modular hardware with a dedicated mobile application to enable real-time monitoring, calibration, visualization, and data export. The hardware layer allows fast connection of multiple sensors via Bluetooth, supporting commonly used parameters such as pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, pressure, and weight, as well as custom or application-specific sensors.The software layer provides an intuitive mobile interface for experiment setup, live data display, sensor calibration, and data logging. Experimental data can be directly exported in standard formats (e.g. CSV), facilitating downstream analysis and reproducibility.
Alternatives to Flapp are very limited and less attractive/versatile. Currently, options for scientists are: (1) either solutions offered by companies offering a system to be used with their specific devices, (2) engineering companies which provides fully integrated solution but expensive and without flexibility or (3) custom made solution (based on labview for example) which require programming and configuration each time a new setup is to be monitored.
The initial spirit of the Flapp environment is to offer a premium solution ready to use for a broad audience while, through an open science perspective offering the possibility to gather a community for advanced users keen to further optimise, personalize and diversify the system.
Research team and contact
Flapp has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and technical developers (Nicolás Saganías, Gaëtan Blandin, Bianca Zappulla). Contact: Dr Gaëtan Blandin (gaetan.blandin@udg.edu)
Current status of technology development
A functional minimum viable product (MVP) is currently available and has been used for several years in LEQUIA laboratory environments. The MVP includes in-house developed electronics and software, 3D-printed components, and compatibility with both commercial and custom-built sensors. The project is now at a stage where key hardware design choices are required to ensure robustness, scalability, and replicability for broader deployment.
Desired cooperation
We seek to establish partnerships with technology developers, end-users and investors to upgrade and validate the system.