Stealthy Droid Works lands $100K NSF grant

By Mass High Tech staff

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a $99,865 grant to The Droid Works Inc., the stealthy robotics firm headed by Helen Grenier, co-founding director at Bedford-based iRobot Corp. The funding will go toward the development of an “indoor/outdoor robotic air vehicle for emergency response.”

The almost $100,000 grant, a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 grant that will expire around the end of the year, will be used to develop Unmanned Air Vehicles for indoor use, in addition to outdoor use. Indoor applications would enable the UAVs to respond to emergency situations that involve large steps, closed doors and rough terrain. The NSF grant will be used to develop indoor flight control and safety technology for the UAVs.

The Droid Works, based in Wayland, has only a shell of a website currently.

Grenier co-founded iRobot in 1990 with Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle, whom she studied under at MIT.

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