UAS News Podcast — 2012-07-18
Audio not available on SoundCloud — full transcript below.
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to yet another installment in our series of podcasts where we discuss issues and news that is relevant to the global unmanned aircraft, well just unmanned technologies in general. We'll try and talk about all the different technologies here. In this week's episode we're going to discuss some current events. We're going to discuss Gene's book, First to Deploy, and we've got Jay on from Boca Bearings and we're going to talk about the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovations Competition.
I of course am your host, your consummate host, Patrick Egan. We have our co-host Gene Robinson today. Gene, you out there?
I am out here Patrick. Thanks for having me back again. It's been a long week of tough training but we're ready to go. Oh yeah, you guys were out on NIST again, correct?
That is correct and it was slightly warm out there. I'll tell you it was like 10 acres of burning stumps trying to stand out there in the heat and fly those airplanes but we did manage to get it done. Well, you know, again it's good that you guys are out there and I've heard from the MLB company we had Steve on. They're one of the members of my chapter out here in Silicon Valley and I was actually speaking with Parker and he said you guys were really peddled to the metal doing some work out there and it was all good.
I had to work through some software issues but I guess you guys overcame and we're doing some good flying so that's good to hear another successful NIST operation. Yeah, it was a good one. We are very pleased with the progress that we've made and we've learned a significant amount about ground control software. Well, you know what, I got that same system for the project that I'm working on for the Army and I plan on calling you guys.
I'm going to actually be working that system in the next couple of months and I'm going to be calling you guys for help. So if you see my number you got to decide if you want to help or just go right to voicemail. I'll leave that up to you. And then moving on, we did mention Silicon Valley.
We had our chapter meeting last week and the folks from Airship Ventures hosted the meeting. It's kind of cool there over there in what used to be the officers quarters when that was a Navy base and of course it was lighter than air. They had a nice meeting. It was standing room only.
It was a real hangar burner as it were. There were 70 plus people there. We had some kids from Carnegie Mellon who by the way descended upon the pizza table like a swarm of locusts out of the Old Testament. But I guess college kids like pizza.
I don't know. Anyway it was good. It was informative. We had a great time.
So people went out, got to go out to the hangars out there and do a tour including my niece who now is a student at UCLA. She's trying to adjust her major more towards technology now that I think she's got the bug. So that's a good thing. I wanted to ask you about the book, Gene.
How's it going? Well I got to tell you Patrick, as much as we tried to pack into it, there are folks out there that are asking for more. And it's been very gratifying some of the comments that we've gotten. And I think more importantly it's gotten people to think.
And it's more about the entire system in a UAS, with the S being system so far. There's a lot more just besides the piece that flies around in the air, goes out and does its thing whether it's on the ground or in the air or in the water. It's gotten people to think about the support side of it. The people that need to be involved, the type of training, the type of software and computers and that sort of thing.
And it's really been gratifying to hear people ask really, really smart questions about some of the stuff that we discussed in the book. So it's been a very positive thing so far. Well I know there's a lot of interest in it because we nailed it, Chet. With the first DeBlois show.
I mean that show, that podcast has been downloaded over 4,600 times. So the message is out there. People are getting it. People are excited about it.
I mean 4,600, that's pretty damn impressive in my book. So people are excited about the topic. I have to tell you that I thought so much of the book, Gene, I decided to write a four day RPA applications training syllabus. And I think it pretty much wrote itself.
And I do think that really, seriously though, I do think that that book lends itself to a syllabus where you can actually do applications training. And I do want to, I'd like to work on something like that with you that maybe we could offer. What do you think about that idea?
I think it's an excellent idea, Patrick. You know, again, the comments that we have been getting in from the book, each one of those sections that are in the book have been kind of expanded by some of the comments, the sensors, you know, can we do this?
Can we do that? Again, the ground control software, a lot of people don't realize the complexity of it. You could spend an entire day talking about software, regardless of whether it was CloudCat, MicroPilot, Happy Kilmores, Robotic US, any of those ground station control softwares have commonalities that are going to be easily discussed over in a general kind of atmosphere. And they need to be discussed with folks and folks need to learn those sorts of things.
So yeah, I think the training syllabus is a great idea. Looking forward to working with you on it. I know you've written a lot of really good stuff. So I think that we could come up with some really, really informative stuff.
Well, and I think that the application side of it, I mean, there are other efforts. And you know, we're going to do that. We're going to start on Thursday with the Back to School series on the podcast. And it's all good.
But I definitely want to focus on applications. Instead of it being conceptual, let's say scenarios, real world scenarios. And if anyone's interested in that, we'll probably have to do a show on it and talk about the concepts where we're a little bit different. And you know, we may get a little copycat action on that.
But you know what they say, imitation is the best form of flattery. But I think it's timely. And I know that you and I share a lot of ideas, as far as first responders and law enforcement using that. And I do want to segue into another topic on that.
And I don't want to be Debbie Downer. But I do want to say, you know, I've been hearing some more and more ideas out there about law enforcement wanting to weaponize small unmanned aircraft systems. And I'm just going to say, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I mean, we've got all these issues with privacy, you want to put a grenade launcher on a small UAS, you know, the public's not ready for that.
Could we learn, you know, how to fly first? Could we learn how to apply?
Could we even just get into NAS first, before we start talking about weaponizing the systems? I just think it's crazy. You know, what do you think?
You're really talking a Blade Runner kind of scenario here with drones running around tagging people and that sort of thing. And I think that the American public will probably be significantly more resistant to that than they have been so far with the privacy issue. I mean, there are certain things that, you know, we understand for our security that we might have to give up. Every street light that you see now has a camera on it.
And your picture is taken every day. We understand that. And sometimes it's good to have that sort of information. But when you start working this technology, and it can be abused to the level that people are starting to talk about, they're going to get some real pushback on that one.
That's what I think. I agree with that. And I'm also going to add to that, you know, the street lamps can't tase me yet, you know. And I hope that doesn't come soon.
But you know, it's just this is crazy talk, man. I mean, I don't know, you know, what people are thinking, you know, this this industry, I see it kind of hanging there in danger. And, you know, still, I'm more of a proponent of getting the technology out into the hands of the farmers or things that can help the public. And not that law enforcement doesn't help the public.
But you know, we just we got to move away from the air superiority gray, got to move away from the asymmetrical warfare thing. And we got to move away from talking about, you know, weaponizing these systems. It's just I mean, I don't if someone were to say, how could you sabotage this industry?
I'd probably run down that same list. Oh, you want to do everything you can to limit the industry?
Well, here's what you do. And so you know, let's move away from that. Let's be smart. Let's let's, let's talk about how these things can help first, and then maybe move on to that into the future, or just drop it all together.
I just don't think that model is going to work. But besides that, things are moving along. You know, things better things are looking up more and more people are coming on board and wanting to know about the technology. Obviously, I mean, the podcast series off the hook, can't can't believe the the action that we're getting.
So obviously, people are thirsting or hungry for knowledge about these technologies, and their application. So that's a good thing. You know, more and more as we move into the future. I think, you know, we'll gain kind of the snowball and get more people interested in this.
And I'm sure you are you seeing that? Are you getting some feedback with the pressure getting, Gene?
There is no doubt that more and more people are very interested in using this technology. There's no doubt in my mind. I think that more of the law enforcement shows that that we hear from more of the law enforcement agencies, even the the first responders, the fire, they're all asking questions about how they can get into it and how they can use it. Now, most of them aren't looking to buy a quarter of a million dollar system yet.
They're looking on the small end. And I believe that's where the biggest majority of the business from this industry is going to come from for the civilian agencies. Certainly the DEA and the larger ones like the Border Patrol, those guys, they can fly the Predators and they can fly the the Tritons as they're now called. But the local law enforcement guys, they're going to be looking for quadcopters and they're going to be looking for small two pound, four pound aircraft that they can get situational awareness from.
That's the big seller right now is getting the situational awareness for the least amount of money they can. And that's exactly where it's headed. And I'd hang my hat on that one. Well, you know, and we've been talking earlier today, though, too, you know, as people of the sensors and what types of sensors are out there and the price points and the different the different sensors that are out there, EOIR, LIDAR, you know, I mean, there's a whole bunch of them.
But again, you know, all those technologies and platform costs and everything, you start rolling those together and trucks and guides and training. And I got, you know, $200,000 and I can fly to 400 feet and 1500 feet laterally. That's a tough business model to crack. Now, you know, when we get up into the predator class, you know, at $50 million, I'm just not seeing the business case there, you know, even if I could fly passengers, maybe I could sell seats on the wing.
You know, commercially, commercially, that business model is not going to work. The 400 feet and 1500 feet laterally, that's not going to work for a lot of folks commercially. And things are going to have to open up a bit before it becomes viable for a small company to to use that sort of airspace. And I don't know when that's going to come, Patrick.
Well, you know, I don't know, this is just, you know, the optimist that I am, we could look at the glass half full or half empty. The UAS Integration Office at the FAA is expanding into six offices. So I called that one, they're growing their business, there's going to be a ton of new people coming on board, and either, hopefully, we'll get some people with experience, I'm not holding my breath, I have a feeling we're going to have to educate a bunch of people, bring them up to speed.
And I'm going to be sorely disappointed if the FAA has not picked people that know this technology and know this application, then I'm not just talking about one vendor's product.
And Expose is coming out at SUAS news. And, you know, I've been inspired to do a little reach back and a little reach forward on basically the management of that office, who's in charge, oversight, accountability, budgets, you know, I think as the public, we need to know this. So this thing's going to probably be ongoing. But, you know, I want to know who's in charge.
I want to know where the why the lack of activity or what activity has been going on. And if you know, I would suggest if they don't like getting beat up about the lack of activity, and there's been things going on, you need to be forthcoming and show it to the public. And, you know, I don't want to get too caught up on that. That will be a future podcast.
But I want to know now that we got six offices, I think we should be able to get in the air here pretty darn quick. And we're going to have to think about realistic operational envelopes. But I agree. I think it would happen sooner than the six to eight months that it's taken now to get a go of.
That's a joke. It's totally unacceptable. And, you know, we talk about the, you know, go or speeding it up or the viability. That's not viable.
That's not viable at all. You know, we got to take baby steps and all the rest of that. I agree. And it doesn't take 10 years to take one baby step.
But anyway, I'm going to get off of that. And I want to bring our introduce our guest, Jay from Boca Bearings. Hey, Jay, how's it going?
Hey, guys, how's it going? Good. I'm sorry you had us like sit through all that. But you know, that's part of it.
I love listening to this stuff. This is the stuff we're passionate about, too. Well, good. And you know, that's a good point, even for me to bring that up.
I'm talking to more and more people are coming out of the woodwork that are like your message resonates with me. My message is monetizing this technology, the unmanned technologies and robotics. And there's a lot of people who are very passionate about that. Every time I mention that people are like, Yep, that that you're right on target, buddy.
And that kind of leads into why I had you as a guest on the show, Jay. Lots of people have been talking about STEM technology or STEM science, technology and engineering and mathematics. And it's a good thing. I'm encouraged about that.
But I'm also very concerned about I had a meeting with my congresswoman, Matt Sui's lead staffer. And he was talking about this. I said, Yeah, it's good to have the rainbows and the unicorns. But we've got to have the pot of gold.
Where are the jobs? And, and the thing that I like about what you're doing is private business, you guys are going out on a limb, you're putting your money where your mouth is, you're like, hey, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do something here. And I like my favorite part of this deal is any Joe bag of donuts can get in on this contest. And I want to hear, I mean, that's what I think is going on.
But could you please talk to the reasons that Boca bearings decided to do this contest? Sure, well, you know, Boca bearings got started 25 years ago, my father started the business out of my bedroom. He'd worked for 20 some odd years, selling thousands of bearings into industrial applications, and wanted to have fun and decided he had enough of living up north in the cold and he wanted to move to Florida. He wanted to do something that was fun.
So he knew there was an opportunity in radio control bearings. So it was just really the beginning of a lot of the ready to run radio control cars and trucks and planes and helicopters and boats. And they were all running on bushings. So he took the opportunity and he started the business.
He really made a drastic move from speaking to major buyers buying millions of dollars worth of bearings, spending half hour or sometimes an hour on the phone with a kid in Boise, Idaho, who didn't understand one bearing from the other. And that's really what he enjoyed doing. He enjoyed educating these kids and working in the hobby. Even though he wasn't a hobbyist himself, it was an area where they was full of passion as opposed to the industrial side of things where he had come from.
And lo and behold, all those kids who he educated grew up and they all went to work for the US Naval Research Institute, for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for the Oceanographic Institute, and they started calling more and more into the company and pulling the company into these very diverse applications in underwater robots and even some of the, we're involved in one of the Lunar X Prize robots and all these people that were radio control hobbyists now became these very important people involved in a lot of these areas we're talking about in science, technology, engineering, and math.
So go ahead. That's a very cool story. And it's amazing, really. We go and we do a lot of the radio control trade shows, for example.
And what we're seeing more and more over the last five years or so is that the Army and the Navy and the Air Force, they're recruiting directly out of these industries. So these kids who are hands on, very technical, they understand not only the hardware but the software are being directly recruited into these industries now like you're talking about, the actual jobs, the bread and butter. Right.
And you know, the other thing that's really cool about this is, you know, in my spare time writing another white paper about monetizing this, I think looking forward, it's almost like we have to look back to the future.
And what you're talking about here, I think, are this idea where people are kind of crowdsourcing and it's kind of a hybrid cottage industry. You know, a lot of people in the military are like, oh, it's all high tech. But just like you said, these are these are people tinkering and coming up with systems and working on solutions to problems. And I really, I think at the manufacturing base, the declining manufacturing base in this country, people are going to have to look to new ways like you're exactly what you're laid out to, let's say, find themselves their own job or a niche in the future.
That was one of the things that really resonated with me was just looking at the page and the contest. And I did notice that you have STEM on there and FIRST Robotics and some other groups. How do these, how do these like, I guess, play into the business model of the contest?
Are they helping you guys with this? Are you doing it alone?
Not really. Really, what we're trying to convey is the fact that we do a lot of sponsorships in these areas. So we sponsor FIRST Robotics teams and we contribute dollars to some other organizations that are involved in helping to educate kids with science and technology. Actually, recently, we've added an A to STEM and we've made it STEAM.
And the A is for art. I like it. Take a look. Yeah, if you look on our page, there are some very serious art installations that are mind boggling.
That takes some serious engineering. So that's equally a part of this thing, I would say. With respect to what you were mentioning. I'm sorry, say again.
Do you mind if I steal STEAM? Because that is exactly... Absolutely. It's like a technical, okay, good, because this is a technical, I see it as a technical industrial arts thing.
And just like you're saying with the artists, the artists have the creativity that now that if you can put the engineering parts and pieces and tools in their hand, that the artists are extremely creative in this industry. I'm right there with you. I got to steal that, but I'm going to give you credit. But the thing that you were mentioning with manufacturing and the thing that's interesting about what we're talking about with these artists and the DIY crowd and the backyard tinkerers is the democratization of the tools.
So, you know, the 3D printers that are out there now allow these people to not have to go to China or a major manufacturer who has to produce thousands or tens of thousands of something. They have to make mold charges. They don't have to get involved in any of that stuff. If they have a vision and a little bit of knowledge about using some software, they can bang out these parts either themselves or online one at a time.
And now the modern face of American manufacturing is the long tail of manufacturing, right? It's not the volume that had to happen in the past that forced offshore manufacturing to be a reality. And now you can really think about bringing that stuff back to the states because you put a 3D printer on their desk and they can be producing one-offs, you know, at will. Well, that and you're also these, the idea that the community now, the engineering community is worldwide.
And I've noticed, you know, I've been online in all these different groups for so many years. And, you know, it used to be, man, it's going to take me forever to get an answer to my question. Within five minutes, you're going to have five, six, eight, ten responses to your question. And so that group of people that you're talking about, engineering products, can be so small because the expertise is out there and people can lean on it.
And they're really standing on the shoulders of giants, truly. I mean, it's amazing. It is amazing. And that is one thing.
I'm trying to build a module, a training module around this whole concept. And so all of this is really resonating with me because I think that this is going to be the manufacturing future for America. So many of the jobs that have gone to China, I mean, we all kind of know what's kind of going on in China, but I've been doing a little bit more research. And, you know, the people go over there and build a whole factory for two million dollars and it's fully furnished, has all the machines.
You've got dormitories. You've got kitchens. Your employees live at your facility. I don't really see that happening or that model coming to America to make, you know, pillows or widgets or whatever the heck you're talking about.
I don't think we can compete with that. So people, I see this as an on-ramp for people to do business. Yeah, well that other model is not really that sustainable any longer as fuel costs continue to rise, as labor costs continue to rise. It's the great race to the bottom with all these countries.
Eventually we're going to run out of someplace to go to to get the free labor, the cheap labor. But bringing all this stuff back into on your own desktop so that you don't have to produce a million of something to buy one of them at the local store. You print it on your desk and have it the next day. And yeah, and those applications that unmanned technologies and robotics can be applied to, that's another thing is finding a mission.
That's kind of what my thing is predicated on is find a mission or find a solution for a problem set, design a vehicle or some technical solution for it and monetize your creation in labor. And I agree with you. It does bother me. I mean we are going to run out of countries to abuse their population to make cheap goods.
And it's just a matter of time. So let's look inward. And I think the other thing is that people are gravitating back towards quality and let's say products produced by craftspeople. I do think that there are some people saying, hey, we need to look back at that.
And I think that'll move on more in the future too. I miss the quality of products that were made in this country. It's really... Yeah, I agree.
I agree with you. But I guess something that's important about today's news with respect to the industries we're talking about, something that's important is this notion of good enough. Where these low quality 3D printers for many of these applications are good enough. And the low tolerances of the 3D printers are really good enough to get a product into a prototyping phase or even get it into a market that doesn't need a very sophisticated, expensive solution.
It needs the quickest, easiest, least expensive solution that really is good enough. And I find that interesting too because that really democratizes things as well. And that isn't to exclude quality by any stretch. It's just that you're not forced or pigeonholed by that as well.
It's a new opportunity. I agree. I do agree and I like the idea that it does broaden it to the masses. But I think as we move forward and these unmanned technologies get commercialized, product liability is going to be an issue.
And it's something we're going to want to think about and our friends, you're always in business with your insurance guy. You know what I'm saying?
But this is a great conversation. I think we're going to have to do another podcast in the future and get you back on and just talk about this. Because I think we can go on for about 45 minutes. Gene, would you like to add anything on the real estate that's been covered?
You know, I'm just amazed. My mouth was kind of hanging open as I listened to Jay describe how he's helping to promote the science and to get our young people involved in this sort of thing because it's so refreshing to me anyway. You know, we've done our own fair share of going out to schools and showing them the flying wings and things like that. But these guys, I mean to hear your dad talking to that kid in Iowa for an hour to explain the bearings to him is just a very refreshing tale.
And I really am enjoying it so far. So man, just keep that whole idea going because I think that's really where America needs to be. Yeah, we give a lot of credit to my father here. That's Alan Baum who started the company 25 years ago.
Well, you know what it shows? I could see it's passion. And that's one thing this field has got a lot of passion in people, but it's passion. And you know, the other thing I got to hand to you and the company and your dad, Jay, is you know, obviously you guys are forward thinking that all the work that you're doing and I know, you know, I mentor robotics club at the high school and they're doing first.
And I know that a lot of these clubs and teams reach out and rely on companies like yours and ask for donations and stuff. And I know it's got to be a hard business model to donate stuff to everyone. And my hat is really off to you on that. Even just even the being able to or willing to speak to people on the phone or whatever else.
I know it's extra time out of your day. And I want to just say thanks for that right off the bat. Now, we did move off of the contest and I want to return back to the contest. Sure.
Could you tell us about some of the prizes? Sure. So every month basically we take people are able to submit their videos and their goal is for them to drive as much traffic to their video as they can to get boats. The one at the end of the month with the most boats gets a brand new iPad 3.
So far, you know, we've given out six iPads to the six winners for this year. And then it'll continue through the end of the year into December. And at the end of the year, there are a panel of us here will pick the top three, two runner ups and a first grand prize. The two runner ups are going to get their own free MakerBot 3D printer.
Cool. And the first prize, the grand prize will get a ten thousand dollar check from us. Even cooler. Now, do you have any do you have any prizes for people that pontificate?
Because I think I could take that one down. Listen, if you pontificate in type in text for Google to eat up. Absolutely. I'll give you some.
Call for the search engines, right? Exactly. I like it. Okay.
Well, hey, we got you on here. Could you could you give us give us the home page website and then give us the contest website if you can. Sure. So it's just Boca bearings dot com, which is B O C A B E A R I N G S as in Sam dot com.
And right from the home page, there's a big banner on the home page that clicks you right through to the contest. But it does happen to be Boca bearings dot com slash innovation dash contest. Well, that's that's good there. And if for some reason you're you're riding down the road or whatever, and you're listening to this and you weren't able to copy that down, you can always email me at the SQ from the SQA news website and I will get you that that link or contact information.
I wanted to talk to I mean, those are great. The prizes. I mean, again, you know, hats off. Money wears them out.
This the the the prizes are great. I know that the kids just keep talking about these 3D printers and that's pretty exciting that you guys are giving away to those. And then the ten thousand dollars. I mean, I could I could I mean, my wheels are spinning right now about the stuff that I could spend that ten thousand dollars on as far as building like an RV.
Or a UA or even a ground vehicle. I mean, it's like it's funny how fast I could get run away with that. But let's you know, I did peruse the site real quick and I want to I would like you to maybe speak to some of the example examples of entries that you guys have gotten. And is this the first year or only year you've done it?
Are you going to do it again? Well, this is the first year and we're really encouraged by it. It's been a ton of fun. It was it's really shaping up to be how we planned it to be.
So we're very encouraged. And yeah, the idea is to do this every year. I'm not sure we'll do it for 12 months out of every year, but probably six months next year. Well, and I know I kind of crowded you with two questions and that's good.
And I'm going to extend to if you guys do the same thing, And I'm going to extend to if you guys do this next year, As you as news wants to get involved and if we can help, you know, get the word out or something or you think about it and maybe some way we can work together and we can do another podcast or whatever. And I want to help you guys out with that. All right, cool. So I guess you would also ask me about some of the projects that were in there.
Yes, that's what I would like to hear some examples of some of the great ideas that you've surely gotten by now. Yeah, it's pretty fun. There's so much stuff in there. But some of the stuff that's my personal favorite happens to be some of the art installations.
The Burning Man community. I'm not sure if you folks are familiar with the Burning Man community has gotten hold of this contest. And out of the last six months, they've won four. Really?
You know, they're a very powerful community, obviously, with a lot of friends and a lot of support. And they're driving a lot of votes to these projects, which are amazing projects. We're talking 32 foot tall zoetropes that are powered by people pulling ropes in tandem. And if they pull the ropes at the right time, it strikes a strobe light that turns this spinning wheel, this enormous spinning wheel, into a persistence of vision image of skeletons rowing in a boat.
And it's astounding to see this thing. We also have, as part of the Burning Man community, some huge dragons that spit fire and drive around. I know the guy that has the giraffe. It's amazing what these people are building.
And you know, these are enormous installations. They're not small by any stretch of the imagination. They are. They're big.
Really just breathtaking. And certainly the amount of engineering and programming that go into these projects is just jaw dropping. But you know, outside of those, we also have a lot of cool little things. There's a guy who's building some farming robots, for example.
And his market, his target market, are third world countries. So he's looking to take these little, they're like crabs almost, that are sampling the soil, sending information back to a base, telling the other robots what needs to be done to that section of the soil, planting seeds and doing all these different jobs with the hopes that if it can be automated or centralized, that it can be better controlled.
And that's a really cool project. There's another guy out there who's also targeting the third world countries with a low cost concrete lathe that pretty much anybody can build and open sourcing, I think, a lot of the plans as well.
There's a full robot band in there with a drum set, a banjo. I think they've got some horns too. They're blowing wind over this thing with a robot. Just, you know, again, mind boggling to see what's gone into this thing.
Aside from that, there's a self-making bed, which we thought was pretty interesting. I can do that. You can't get any lazier than that, right?
And then there's two, like, home care or assistive, assistant robot applications. That is certainly the future of robotics. You see iRobot funneling lots of dollars into the home care, even landscaping, you know. They're putting a lot of dollars into farming and home care.
Those seem like two pretty good opportunities down the line. And there's a lot of interesting ones. There's a lot of kinetic art that's in there, which may not necessarily take much in terms of programming or robotics, but are still very interesting, and a number of different quadcopter applications. There's a full-size quadcopter with a guy that's amazingly foolish enough to get on it and a number of remote control quadcopters.
And I'll end it off with probably my favorite one that won April's contest, which was called MorphX. And you've probably seen this thing because it became very popular and went very viral. It's essentially a sphere that breaks apart, and the pieces of the sphere can become legs, so this thing can walk, it can roll, it can force the body to move, sides of it against a tube, for example, and climb up that tube. No way.
So yeah, very ingenious application, really, of this very traditional, when you look at it, you'll see a lot of the elements you've been seeing and a lot of these new robots that are coming out, but he's put them together in a very unique way. You're blowing me away over here. I'm going to have to get over to the left. Incredible, right?
Oh yeah, I mean, this does, now, I will say, okay, being a pragmatist, okay, the little robots that do the farming in the third world, that's really how I think about spreading this technology out, is helping people feed themselves, helping people in disasters or floods or diminishing resources and maximizing those, and that's very interesting, and I'm interested in that. But when you get to the other side of this and you start talking about, you know, creations that breathe fire, for instance, or, you know, even this last thing that you talked about, I'm very interested to see that.
I mean, did you expect, I mean, were these kind of, what were you kind of expecting to see come out of this contest? Well, this is what I was hoping, you know, this is what I was expecting. I'm a science fiction geek from when I was a little kid, and, you know, I followed these industries when I got involved with Boca bearings and I started talking to all these engineers with fire in their eyes and trying to describe this thing they're building and they're gesticulating and they're making these motions, and it's infectious.
It's amazing when they talk how infectious it is, how passionate they are, and so we said to ourselves, well, how do we capitalize on this, you know, this energy that all these customers have, we want to convey that to everybody else. So this is what we were hoping for, and yeah, it's been incredible. We've really enjoyed being involved with it. Well, if nothing else, you know, being a conduit for creativity and, you know, people being able to showcase this stuff, this is exactly what I'm talking about.
You don't have to be an engineering student. You could just be Joe Bagg of donuts, and I think, you know, and back to the steam thing, you know, you're right on target, man. I can't believe this conversation has gone the way it has. It's excellent.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about, and I'm really excited to get over to the website and look at some of these creations. I mean, that last one that you talked about, you know, climbing the tube and doing all these different things in one machine. I used to kind of think that, you know, well, you can't use one machine for all these different applications and yada yada, but I'm getting an inkling that maybe that's not really the case anymore and the pool's growing with imagination. Sure, sure.
And so, yeah, we'll have to check that out. And, you know, and again, next year, if you guys decide you want to do this, I definitely want to get involved and help get the word out to this community because I think that moving into the future, like you were saying, you know, the robotics thing is going to be bigger. I think that, you know, like some of the applications you were talking about and robots helping people in the future, like,
you know, elderly people or doing those jobs, and everybody says dull, dirty, and dangerous, but there are a lot of jobs like making the bed that I would, you know, have no qualms passing off to my robotics friend.
You know, I can think of a couple more too, you know, but that would be great. So that's interesting stuff. So you guys, are you selling the Boca bearings?
Do you guys stick to the bearings or have you branched out and are you selling other ancillary components and products? Well, we are, we do specialize in ceramic hybrid and full ceramic bearings, which is a pretty innovative product in and of itself. You know, a lot of the, any vacuum applications, chemical baths, magnetic applications like optics and MRI machines, all require spinning and rotary motion, but many of them can't take a traditional steel bearing that's corrosive or conductive or magnetic.
So ceramic is none of those things and it's really being, the envelope is being pushed in terms of applications that can now, that historically didn't have an option because the bearing wouldn't run in that application, now have a material that they can use, does last, and doesn't conflict with, you know, the air quality or the environment that they're working in. So we work on that sort of leading edge of the bearing technology, which puts us in touch again with a lot of these bleeding edge applications.
So that's really our specialty. We do also sell lubricants and special dry film lubricants and slowly but surely we're getting into different types of bearings, but always with this eye towards value added for the environment and ceramic or ceramic, full ceramic or ceramic hybrid that make them something that's a little bit different because bearings in and of themselves are a commodity and we try to differentiate ourselves by that. Well,
I know that even prior to the show, Gene had spoke to a possible application for some of those ceramic bearings and I don't know if Gene wants to talk about that publicly because that might be proprietary, but yeah, I can see a lot of applications for ceramic bearings.
Kind of interesting that you guys are staying with that application. Usually people want to diversify and get into other things, but it sounds like you're very happy within that niche and the development and whatnot of the ceramics. I'm sure you sell metal races too. Sure, we do standard product as well and what we usually try to do is you take the base of the product, the standard, offer that and then offer the upgrades from there with the different options, ceramic or full ceramic and then people at least have the ability to choose.
Well, that's great. We like choice. Well, this show, believe it or not, we've already ran through 45 minutes. It always kind of blows my mind here at the end of the deal.
So I'm always wondering, well, are we going to make 45 minutes and we seem to always hit it and can go on, but I really want to thank you for being on, Jay. Thank you. Thanks again for all of the stuff that you're doing for the community, for the robotics kids and this contest and I hope to speak with you in the future, sir. You as well.
Thanks a lot, guys. I appreciate it. Gene, and Gene, I want to, we'll talk more in the future about that. Thanks again for being the co-host.
That's right. Anybody that is going to AUVSI, I will be there and I will be in the President's booth on Wednesday morning at 10.30. Come and see me. Have a good week.
See you all. Bye. Bye now.