Start small, dream big!
At NavAbility, we believe that robotics and autonomy are hard problems. This is because they’re emerging and changing continuously. Robotics and autonomy require a journey. In this article, we discuss how NavAbility empowers you to deliver on your projects.
We want to make solutions that are accessible to organizations of all sizes. The current state of this industry has numerous technologies which rarely interoperate and require significant upfront cost to implement. We want to change that. We want you to be able to get started with a minimal viable navigation solution. And then provide a comprehensive and robust suite of tools that allows you to scale and grow that solution into a production ready product.
We are developing that platform.
The NavAbility Platform is has a zero-install setup (Stay tuned for our tutorials app!) through to a fully-functional on-device deployment. It is grounded in next generation technology, MM-iSAMv2, allowing for almost limitless possibilities for your project journey.
This is where we need your help! We are focusing on building the best-in-class navigation software, but we need you to integrate your projects on top of it. It is early days, but already our technology can perform in place of GTSAM, Nav2, or SLAMCore. From there, we cannot wait for you to try the additional game-changing features made possible by our next generation technology.
The NavAbility Platform will give any organization a significantly lower cost of ownership, a much quicker time to market, and a reduced risk with a clear roadmap as you scale up. Reach out to discuss how we can help each other. Continue reading to learn more about how our strategy and technology enables these outcomes.
Lower cost of ownership
Deploy today with our ready to use products
First, the algorithm<->hardware tradeoff. There is often a trade off between the quality of your algorithms and the quality of your hardware. On one hand, you can use an algorithm with simplifying assumptions for speed and performance, but this may require an expensive sensor. However, if your algorithm is robust, it may run more slowly, but you can use a lower-cost sensor. The issue is that this choice has to be made very early in the project with little knowledge of how the design may iterate. If the wrong choice is made, or the technical requirements change, this can result in high cost. The MM-iSAMv2 technology allows you to start with the simplest available hardware while you develop and test and only upgrade when you need. The underlying algorithms leverage factor graph and manifold mathematics, enabling it to solve the most challenging problems without compromising performance. In the end, you can engineer for cost rather than be stuck with whatever you started with.
Second, the true cost of implementation. Once you get everything working in the lab or on your desktop computer, how do you bring that to market? There is a huge gap between a proof-of-concept and a running production product. NavAbility is providing a ready to use cloud platform that can be used from initial concept to scaled-up production system. This way you can focus on your specific product rather than how to host your computations.
Third, the distributed computing problem. The MM-iSAMv2 technology allows for data syncing between edge devices and cloud allowing for the flexibility to run large compute in the cloud and share that data with the edge. This reduces the overall cost of the compute hardware on the edge if your application has any sort of connection to the cloud.
As we stated above, robotics and autonomy are hard problems. They require a journey. Often it takes weeks to properly validate that a technology will work for your needs. In addition, your organization may have to hire costly personnel to develop navigation solutions. NavAbility’s core competency is navigation solutions and we are here to help. Together we are able to solve the navigation problem you are encountering.
The MM-iSAMv2 technology is flexible, so you can get a Minimum Viable Product running and just start gathering feedback from your customers. When the timing is right or if something is not right, it’s easy to drop in new, or more, hardware or iterate on the algorithm. In the end, we are always here to help you optimize your designs as your approaching launch day.
Faster time to market
Engage our experts to rapidly develop your novel applications
Reduce project risk
Leverage our next generation technology to avoid costly R&D
One of the greatest risks on a project is missing the targets. In an R&D project, you might go over budget. When developing a product, the market might not bear the cost needed to deliver. The best solution to these challenges is to get feedback quickly.
The platform we are building is there to help you understand what is possible and how to get there quickly. You can validate designs with customers through simulations on the NavAbility Cloud or even build a one-off Proof-of-Concept using AprilTag stickers and cell-phone cameras. This isn’t the final solution, but gathering early data to validate the viability of an idea dramatically reduces the risk.
The MM-iSAMv2 technology is built into an open-source suite known as Caesar.jl. Our success stories are examples and papers. Our struggles are out there in the open. You know what will work on day one and what needs additional R&D budget. Why trust a single company, when you can trust our community of followers and open codebase?
How can we help?
We want to build the platform that you need. What is your minimum viable navigation solution? What projects are you working on that are over-budget, not getting to market, or may be canceled? What technologies are you using today and how can they be better? The more we know, the better we can support your needs!
