From left, Julian Tryba pilots a small trainer quad-rotor via remote control. He and fellow engineers Cyril Brunner and David Bernstein, all seniors at the University of Vermont, are designing the next generation drone that will be able to fly by itself using gps controls. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS
On the web:
UVM Start website: http://www.uvmstart.org/
Five engineering students at the University of Vermont are building a drone, but they prefer not to call it that.
For marketing purposes, they’re calling it a “flying robot” that will be able to do aerial filming by following a smart phone on the ground.
They hope to be in a position next year to sell the device to consumers, but they’re not there yet. First they have to build a prototype, form a company, and attract funding for their enterprise. That’s the marketing phase in they’re in now: selling their idea to a crowd that might be willing to put up some of the start-up money they need — a crowd otherwise known as UVM alumni.
If everything works out, their company — to be called Eleview Technologies — will start selling the invention next year for less than $1,000. It will be battery-powered and will carry a GoPro camera with electronic linkage to the mobile phone. Capable of operating autonomously or under remote control, it will come in handy, say, for a skier who wants aerial footage of his or her own run down a slope, or for a real estate agent who wants to show a property via an aerial video tour.
The students aren’t calling it a drone because, well, most people think of drones as those controversial unmanned aircraft being used by the CIA to target and fire missiles at designated U.S. enemies.
“We don’t want to scare people,” said David Bernstein, a senior engineering student and a member of the team.
In fact, drones of all sizes are under development around the country for civilian uses. The Federal Aviation Administration is tasked with developing regulations by 2015 for their use in U.S. airspace. The current regulations that cover the students’ device — which will weigh 5-6 pounds and measure about 2 feet across — apply to model aircraft. Model aircraft may not be flown higher than 400 feet or within three miles of an airport.
“We want to take what is now a hobby market into a consumer market,” said Cyril Brunner, another member of the team, adding that they want to make their product “easy to use and affordable.”
The type of craft they’ll use, a helicopter-like device with four or six rotors that can be operated by remote control, can be found in hobby shops. What’s unique about their version is the tracking function: The flying robot will be able to follow a beacon (in the phone) and direct the video camera at that beacon, maintaining a constant distance. The user will be able to pilot the device either hands-free or by manipulating the smart phone.
Julian Tryba, team leader, said they hope to file a provisional patent application by the end of this month. The idea came to him in March. He applied for a grant from UVM’s Senior Experience in Engineering Design (SEED) program and was awarded $2,000 to get the project going.
“I had the idea while skiing after it snowed four feet at Jay Peak and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wish there was a device that could have captured this day,’ Tryba wrote in an email. “That got me thinking and soon afterwards I saw a TED talk by Vijay Kumar, who was building fleets of synchronized quadrotors, which made me realize a flying robot was possible. First I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be way too hard, but then I thought ‘why not?’ After that I chose the team and wrote the grant.”
Jump-starting student entrepreneurs
Eleview is one of seven projects seeking funds under a new program called UVM Start, which seeks to support student entrepreneurs through tax-deductible donations from alumni. UVM calls it a “crowd based donating platform.” Each of the projects has a goal of raising $3,000, by Dec. 1, toward development of an innovative product that can ultimately be marketed to consumers.
Each has a brand name and a short promotional video on the UVM Start website. Besides Eleviewhas raised $300 to date from six funders. Other projects and the amounts raised include:
• A high-end nordic skiing glove that aims to keep hands warm and dry. (StacItUp, $150)
• An energy bar that includes chocolate and Ecuadorian guayusa tea leaves. (Napo Natural, $75).
• A covered, vertical bike rack. (Bike Station, $226).
• A men’s clothing brand that reflects the New England lifestyle, debuting with belts with silk-necktie-type designs. (Logan Richard, $75).
• A door rack for storing skis and snowboards (Doorack, $50).
• A desktop 3D printing system (Filabot, $375).
UVM Start is patterned after a similar program at Middlebury College, MiddStart, which matches student entrepreneurs with alumni funders in what the college calls “a network of microphilanthropy.”
At UVM, a student group reviewed applications and selected the seven projects for the first round of funding. The intent is that each project will evolve into a “profitable, sustainable company,” according to Tucker Severson, of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, one of the program’s sponsors. Other sponsors include the Vermont Technology Council and the UVM Foundation.
The center is prepared to give students guidance in filing for patents, Severson said.
“UVM Start is just the kind of technology-savvy program we need in higher education,” Tom Sullivan, UVM president, said in a news release. “It promotes student innovation and entrepreneurship and connects young people with mentors and potential sponsors in the community and in our alumni network. ”
The tracking challenge
Eleview team members have assembled what they call a hexrotor (a copter with six rotating blades), but they haven’t tested it yet. It has the computer code it needs to fly, Tryba said, “but we are working on the communication between the remote control and the robot.”
By “robot,” he simply means the flying device that will carry the camera and an on-board processor. The processor will use Global Positioning System coordinates — of the smart phone and of the robot itself — to decide which flight motions to execute in order to follow the phone’s beacon.
They call this the “tracking” function, which they say distinguishes their device by enabling it to fly automously as well as by remote control. (Hence the patent application.)
“We are the first team that is developing a tracking system,” Tryba said. “Many companies have developed multirotors/helicopters that can film from the third person perspective but, as far as we know, no one has developed the tracking technology so that filming can be done hands free. Giving the robot autonomy has obvious advantages because you don’t need another person flying it while you perform the action you would like to capture.”
Developing and perfecting that tracking system is the main challenge the students face over the next few months. They’ll be getting some help in their research from MITRE Corp., which has provided them codes for flight and stabilization and has loaned them some hardware.
Just for the purpose of filming, the appeal of such of a device is obvious. Conventional aerial filming uses a full-scale helicopter and costs thousands of dollars.
Tryba said the team expects to build different models for different applications. According to their calculations, the device should be able to stay airborne for nearly half an hour and cover about 10 miles.
How it will work in reality remains to be seen. Their first launch is several weeks away.
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