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3D Robotics

The Open Source Hardware industry: Million Dollar Babies

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 3, 2010 at 1:48am
Philip Torrone and Limor Fried from Adafruit gave a great short presentation at foo camp east last week that discussed the growth in open source hardware companies (including DIY Drones). The industry is now about $50m and doubling annually--they think it's going to be a billion-dollar sector within five years. Companies were surveyed and grouped in "over $1m" and "approaching $1". DIY Drones was in the latter category ;-)

Writeup here.


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Comments

  • Ron Jacobs May 3, 2010 at 8:38am
    Although that article on Insitu points to the fact that even those well intentioned individuals can be swayed to the military side. We just need to keep pushing use of UAVs for recreational and non-military uses. Its really just that the military use gets most publicity. Drones are not inherently evil or anything, just depends what those using them install for payloads.

    All those Reapers and Global Hawks , etc., could just as easily be used for non-combat humanitarian purposes as military.

    The logo is fine. The Predator outline is likely the most recognizable UAV aircraft out there and that works for us too.

    Maybe we can make an effort to dig up material on other uses of UAVs and showcase that...if we haven't already.
  • Bob Hvarven May 3, 2010 at 8:35am
    I think you should use my Prairie Dog AVATAR and remove all doubt..... :) Kidding......
  • Overwatch May 3, 2010 at 8:19am
    It's sexy and has a prop in the back, therefore it's a military drone. They won't stop calling us military unless we put up a Hello Kitty logo instead.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 3, 2010 at 8:15am
    As you know, we've changed the logo so it's a NASA Ikeana, not a Predator. All of our PCBs have been etched with the new logo. I'm not changing it again. Let's move on.
  • bGatti May 3, 2010 at 8:10am
    Maybe its the predator drone logo on the home page?
  • Aaron Buckner May 3, 2010 at 7:32am
    Wow that is a VERY common misconception... I would have thought at least adafruit would make a better distinction... Chris maybe you need to get up on your soapbox and tell people ;) Its good to see all these OSH platforms and vendors getting paid for the work they do its just sad that UAVs are always being misclassified.
  • Overwatch May 3, 2010 at 4:54am
    What's military-style about our foamies again?
This reply was deleted.