Invention 4 - Flight Control System -- Space-Race.org

   • SPACE RACE Challenge Elevator Pitches   ----- MAVERICK DRONES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MARKET The market for consumer drones is entering its high growth phase. Analysts predict it will have a compound annual growth rate of 19% between 2015 and 2020, and reach $3 billion in annual sales by 2024. A rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats, and creates an excellent market entry opportunity for Maverick Drones. INNOVATION STRATEGY Our market entry strategy will initially focus on the STEM education market (grades 5-12+) including home-schools and hobbyists. We will develop a series of fun and engaging STEM Team Competitions (“Missions Improbable”) where students will need to master a broad range of science and math concepts in order to create the programming necessary for their drone to complete each mission. Hands-on team problem solving projects have been shown to be effective in engaging both girls and boys and in promoting interest in pursuing STEM careers. Licensing the UAV flight control technology developed by NASA will allow Maverick to create the first modular “drone on demand” platform where students can choose which plug-and-play sensors they need to meet their unique mission requirements and budget. We will extend the NASA flight control system by integrating it with additional software including ArduPilot, an open source graphical flight planning application, and Scratch a visual programming block language, to create a powerful yet easily accessible mission development environment. COMPETITION All lucrative markets will attract competition. Several other drone companies such as 3D Robotics and Parrot have already seen strong interest from the education market. The CEO of 3DR, Chris Anderson, said: “we’re seeing massive adoption of our drone platforms in education. The diversity and creativity of these programs is astonishing, from archaeology to cinematography to precision farming.” Maverick will differentiate itself from hardware-centric drone competitors by being education-centric, and developing a more complete suite of education tools and curricula including superior teacher support and training. TEAM Maverick Drones has a strong team that is well suited to execute our strategy. The team includes a successful serial entrepreneur, two skilled technical engineers, a technical program manager, and several technical and industry advisors.