Charles Grimm: Drone business taking off for Outdoor Robotics

Talking With ...

May 18, 2014

Charles Grimm, 56, is president of Outdoor Robotics, a small company in New Smyrna Beach. Last week, he attended the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International convention in Orlando. He took a break at the event, billed as the world's largest, and spoke with Orlando Sentinel writer Kevin Spear about competing in the industry of drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.

CFB: How did you get involved in drones?

We started a software company and got involved in Internet marketing, and it was a natural, technology add-on from a media standpoint. We've done different types of video for companies that want to create awareness. It was a technology that would extend our reach for people that wanted something a little different. They wanted something they had to pay a chunk of money for previously to shoot video of their buildings or their business. It was a light touch into expanding our business model and we didn't think initially we would go as far as we did.

CFB: What is your business about?

We weren't really interested in selling services, the video production and so on. We are more of a development and consulting company. Right now, we are here at the show to look at partnerships with people who want us to do design work and possibly market their products. We're going to stay on the product design and sales side. We have people in the pipeline now, talking to us.

CFB: You have a small line of drones. What do they do?

What we do is design and make multicopters, which are quadcopters, four props, and hexacopters, six props. Ours are designed to do filming, using anywhere from a GoPro to a DSLR.

CFB: What do your units sell for?

Originally, our units were priced between $5,000 and $15,000, from the quad to the hex. But, our units now, after doing some product adjustment with motors and things like that, our price points now are at $2,999, $4,999 and $5,999. And the designs we are working on right now will all be within price points of $1,000 to $3,000.

CFB: Why the drop?

I've taken the price down to reflect people's fear of the investment. The fear part is that when you buy something that costs $5,000, it's like buying a couple of MacBooks and flying them around. If you are a novice at flying, even though we can train somebody to fly them in 15 minutes, you are still flying around something that's five grand that can break. It's going to be early adopters right now buying them and even early adopters have a pain threshold.

CFB: The show you are at is the world's largest for drones. What are your impressions?

It's pretty overwhelming. I've been in the tech industry for some time and I'm not afraid of technology and its complexities. But when you walk in here it's pretty overwhelming because you feel the depth of resources and research that has gone into this stuff. As a smaller company, there are other people like me here walking the show, but you will see few people like me exhibiting at the show.

CFB: The Federal Aviation Administration hasn't opened the skies to commercial operation. What's your take on that?

An interesting thing about this show is that there is a mix of businesses and government here. The government speakers are cautious, which is understandable, because rules for this new technology need to be created, and there is much to understand about the uses of UAVs. The entrepreneurs see the opportunities of the UAV technology and naturally want to move things along.

CFB: How do see this industry 10 years from now?

I think there will be an evolution of sophisticated products, better support structures and a large market of UAV service providers. There will mostly likely be a do-it-yourself market, small-enterprise market and big-brand market. Some of the markets we see emerging are agriculture, oil and gas industry, law enforcement, real estate, architecture and media.

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