She’s at it again. First she co-designed iRobot’s Roomba, which shook up the vacuum industry, now Helen Greiner is looking to shake up the consumer drone industry.
The CEO of CyPhy Works and her team have launched the LVL 1 Drone on Kickstarter in an attempt to simplify the drone flying experience.
“There are even drones today where you have one controller for the person flying the drone, and another for the person who is controlling the camera,” Greiner tells BetaBoston.
CyPhy works is looking to take the learning out of flying to have “you just fly.” The real differentiator is its “Level-Up” technology that eliminates tilting from the drone’s vocabulary. CyPhy explains:
“Other multi-rotor drones have to tilt in order to move. This creates swaying motion in the video which requires elaborate, expensive, and fragile mounts in order to stabilize.” … “Our drone never tilts, allowing it to snap perfect pictures and stable video every time. By eliminating tilting, the drone handles intuitively, with an unrivaled out-of-the-box experience.”
Current consumer drone models tilt to the side or forward when changing directions during flight. A combination of software and hardware ensures the LVL 1 “doesn’t tilt forward or backward as it flies, which is what can make flying really difficult for novices.” The LVL 1 also has six rotors – two more than most models – that are all slightly angled to also help it maneuver without tilting forward or sideways.
A 1080p camera is integrated into the LVL 1 body rather than being attached to a hanging bracket to improve stability.
Users control the LVL 1 drone using an Android or iOS smartphone app with a swipe-to-fly interface. And the photos and videos that you take can be shared on social media in real time while the LVL 1 is still flying.
Here are some of the other features on the LVL 1:
- 20+ minutes of flight time
- Battery charging over USB 3.1
- GPS
- Waypoint following
- Geofencing done via smartphone
The LVL 1 is currently on Kickstarter looking to raise $250,000. And they’re off to a great start having, as of press time, already raised nearly $190.000. CyPhy is hoping to get the LVL 1 to consumers in February 2016 for $500.
