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 :



Robot Talk Episode 97 – Pratap Tokekar

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Pratap Tokekar from the University of Maryland about how teams of robots with different capabilities can work together.
08 November 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 96 – Maria Elena Giannaccini

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Maria Elena Giannaccini from the University of Aberdeen about soft and bioinspired robotics for healthcare and beyond.
01 November 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 95 – Jonathan Walker

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jonathan Walker from Innovate UK about translating robotics research into the commercial sector.
25 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 94 – Esyin Chew

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Esyin Chew from Cardiff Metropolitan University about service and social humanoid robots in healthcare and education.
18 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 93 – Matt Beane

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Matt Beane from the University of California, Santa Barbara about how humans can learn to work with intelligent machines.
11 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 92 – Gisela Reyes-Cruz

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gisela Reyes-Cruz from the University of Nottingham about how humans interact with, trust and accept robots.
04 October 2024, by





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


©2024 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association