Today I am pleased to announce the formation of a new commercial support company which I have founded in combination with Bill Bonney (creator of MAVPilot and maintainer of APM Planner 2.0 GCS software) and Patrick Krekelberg who has been running an existing R&D consulting company for several years.
We decided to do this because it has become apparent that there are many companies which are attempting to use UAVs and other mobile robots, but struggle because the field is multidisciplinary, requiring skills not just in software development and electronics, but also power systems, aerodynamics and mechanical engineering. These combined skills are difficult to find in one single person. Over the years, the Ardupilot community and DIY Drones has fostered an amazing group of people who have developed these skills, many who are working as independent contractors. But some, particularly large companies, prefer the simplicity of dealing with one single entity to simplify project management, billing, etc. and to make sourcing talent easier and more reliable.
Our goal is that as the business grows, we will be able to draw on the talent of the community of developers which has built up within this ecosystem, and help connect them with commercial companies needing assistance with their projects.
We aim to help commercial companies gain easier access to the performance, reliability and flexibility of Ardupilot, and also help find ways for developers to keep doing what they have been doing until recently. We will be supporting the ArduPilot community with contributions to the code, support to members on discuss.ardupilot.org and its day to day operations as a commercial supporter.
ASC will offer more than just consulting on Ardupilot code, but complete end-to-end solutions. R&D, vehicle design, rapid prototyping micro-manufacturing, program management, autopilot code, payload integration, user interfaces. ASC also offer assistance with operations, flight training, etc. As little or as much as required to get customer’s ideas off the ground, or along it!. Companies can focus on integrating mobile robotics into their business and developing new revenue streams, instead of having to undertake the long and difficult process of developing UAS expertise and technology in-house.
Autonomous Systems Cooperative http://autosystems.io
Comments
Well done gents! All of us at LightWare wish you the very best in your new venture.
Great update Rob, nice to see that things are moving forward there too..
Best luck for you all and your new company.
Very glad to see this! Great work, wish you guys the best !!
I'm really glad to see you do this, congratulations!
You and Bill have an enormous breadth and depth of experience between you. I'm sure you will do well!
Cheers, Tridge
Well done Good Luck
Great move Rob and I can't think of a better partner than Bill,
I absolutely wish the best of luck to you both.
This is a business that is moving at lightning speed right now and often there are a lot more questions than answers.
And there is also the FAA as well as a lot of frequently less than helpful political, media and public attention.
It is going to be a challenging marketplace.
But the 2 of you together have an enormous amount of hardware and software development experience and you certainly bring top of the line current expertise about UAS to the venture.
Best Regards,
Gary
Great stuff!
Nice idea, Good Luck :)
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