How do you win a Government Grant for something that is largely illegal in your country??Helen Greiner's Droid Works Wins First Gov't Grant for Flying BotsHelen Greiner's stealthy new start-up, The Droid Works, has said almost nothing about what they're up to, except that they're working in the field of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles.) So far, Greiner has been funding the Framingham-based company herself, so there aren't any VCs to blab about what they're working on. And the company is small -- just a handful of engineers, including one superstar HP veteran who helped develop the inkjet printer -- so employee leaks are unlikely. All this makes a curious journalist sad.But when I saw Greiner last night at 'What's Next in Tech,' she mentioned that the company had just landed its first government grant through the SBIR program (Small Business Innovation Research.) I did some searching, and discovered that the company is receiving almost $100,000 to develop flying bots that can operate indoors and out. The description of the work is fascinating, so I'll share it here -- and also mention that Greiner's last company, iRobot, was initially funded not by VCs but by government grants from agencies like NASA.Best you all get onto it and get yourself a slice those of you in USAhttp://www.thedroidworks.com/
And once again the answer to "what's next in tech" is not found in Silicon Valley. The project is legal because it's indoors. Maybe she just copied the Jack Crossfire blog & used it for a grant proposal. It's the same work the Jack Crossfire blog is doing, but it probably uses UWB instead of sonar. Well, she'll probably get the autonomous pocket camcorder first & we'll go back to twinkie routers. Should have gone to MIT.
Comments
A multi rotor vehicle with small propellers, using a sonar or UWB array, hovering at low altitude, probably using a 3DOF IMU to improve reliability.