Robohub.org
 

Drone Startups: PreNav


by
04 August 2014



share this:

Businesses that are operating drones are well aware that the cornerstone of their operations is safety. It might even be said that if you don’t have a safe product (or service), you don’t have a business at all. One of the safety-relevant problems that drone operators are facing is the absence of a sense-and-avoid system that would allow drones to operate autonomously in complex environments.

PreNav has taken up that challenge. Another San Francisco based startup, PreNav develops hardware and software that will enable precise navigation near ground, indoor, around structures and in GPS-denied environments, which would allow drones to safely operate at an increased level of autonomy, avoiding obstacles such as trees or street lighting poles. The technology is based on computer vision (Lidar + cameras) and uses deep neural networks for object recognition and unrivaled localization capabilities.

Roof Inspection

Dronologista had the chance to do a short email interview with the PreNav CEO, Nathan Schuett, and here is what he says:

Dronologista: How did you come up with this project?

Nathan: The three of us — Nathan Schuett (CEO), Asa Hammond (CTO) and Haim Busek (“Mad Scientist”) — were sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco and toying around with the idea of using drones to autonomously deliver cups of coffee from the counter to our table. There were a number of obstacles in the way, and of course GPS doesn’t work indoors, so we thought it was a really interesting engineering challenge. And the more we thought about it, the more we realized there are tons of applications for drones near ground, people, and buildings that aren’t currently possible… yet.

Dronologista: It seems that sense-and-avoid will be all the rage for the commercial and truly autonomous UAV. Have you been asked to develop this system for any of the major UAV manufacturers?

Nathan: We’ve been approached and are building relationships with most of the major manufacturers, but we don’t have any signed contracts at the moment. We’re focusing on building the capabilities of the technology for now.

Dronologista: If not, will it be possible to retrofit existing designs with your system?

Nathan: Yes, we are planning to integrate with a number of different flight controllers.

Dronologista: Since you are US-based, have you experienced any legal trouble while test flying your drones?

Nathan: We haven’t had any issues with the FAA, mainly because we are in active R&D mode and haven’t begun commercial testing or commercial flights yet.

Dronologista: Who is funding and backing PreNav?

Nathan: We’re currently raising a small pre-seed round, consisting of friends and family, angel investors/firms, and Drone.vc, which syndicated us through AngelList.
Telephone Pole Inspection

Telephone Pole Inspection

***

The system that PreNav works on is a part of the solution for fully autonomous drone operation. Other solutions include fleet management systems, such as ones made by DroneDeploy or Garuda Robotics, and charging stations such as the one made by Skysense. When the technology matures enough that these systems become standard, truly autonomous drone operation could become a reality, and the coffee delivered by drone might just become a common sight.

Until then, keep a close watch on startups such as PreNav, because companies like it are at the forefront of an emerging multi-billion dollar industry.

Images courtesy of PreNav. Thank you Nathan!




Dronologista Aviation & Drone Enthusiast
Dronologista Aviation & Drone Enthusiast





Related posts :



Interview with Kate Candon: Leveraging explicit and implicit feedback in human-robot interactions

and   25 Jul 2025
Hear from PhD student Kate about her work on human-robot interactions.

#RoboCup2025: social media round-up part 2

  24 Jul 2025
Find out what participants got up to during the second half of RoboCup2025 in Salvador, Brazil.

#RoboCup2025: social media round-up 1

  21 Jul 2025
Find out what participants got up to during the opening days of RoboCup2025 in Salvador, Brazil.

Livestream of RoboCup2025

  18 Jul 2025
Watch the competition live from Salvador!

Tackling the 3D Simulation League: an interview with Klaus Dorer and Stefan Glaser

and   15 Jul 2025
With RoboCup2025 starting today, we found out more about the 3D simulation league, and the new simulator they have in the works.

An interview with Nicolai Ommer: the RoboCupSoccer Small Size League

and   01 Jul 2025
We caught up with Nicolai to find out more about the Small Size League, how the auto referees work, and how teams use AI.

RoboCupRescue: an interview with Adam Jacoff

and   25 Jun 2025
Find out what's new in the RoboCupRescue League this year.

Robot Talk Episode 126 – Why are we building humanoid robots?

  20 Jun 2025
In this special live recording at Imperial College London, Claire chatted to Ben Russell, Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi, and Petar Kormushev about humanoid robotics.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence