SkySpecs recently graduated from the University of Michigan's student small business incubator,
TechArb, and is looking to begin commercializing its technology next year.
The 8-month-old start-up is developing a small aerial device equipped with video and other detection equipment that can be used to inspect hard-to-reach infrastructure, such as bridges. The company got its start when Danny Elis founded the Michigan Autonomous Vehicles Team at U-M in 2009 and used the technology as his senior-year thesis.
"We have been working on this for a while," Ellis says. "For a while we played around with the idea of turning it into a company."
That became a reality last March. It currently has a prototype but it's close to finishing a second prototype thanks to some angel investment and the potential of landing a $250,000 grant from the state of Michigan in the next few weeks.
SkySpecs plans to take its fully developed prototype and begin selling its services within the next few months. It then hopes to leverage that business into producing enough of its aerial vehicles to sell.
Source: Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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