We’ve known for a long time that Helen Greiner, who co-designed the original Roomba and co-founded iRobot, was building a drone. Now, we know that drone looks pretty awesome.
Greiner’s new company, CyPhy Works, just announced its latest product, the LVL 1 drone, on Kickstarter. It’s a mean-looking thing with six rotors that are all slightly tilted to allow for perfect level flight — hence the name.
There’s also an 8MP, 1080p camera built into the body and intuitive flight controls through an iOS or Android app. The LVL 1 also features geo-fence technology, which is like the drone equivalent of the Roomba not bouncing off the walls too much. All that and 20 minutes of flight time.
Of course, the Roomba analogy can only go so far. While the LVL 1 looks like a pretty sophisticated and affordable robot-for-the-sky, it will not clean your house. It will definitely impress your friends with aerial acrobatics though.
You can secure your own LVL 1 drone for $US400 by backing the Kickstarter project. Bear in mind that not all Kickstarter projects become real products. Given the folks involved in building the LVL 1 though, it’s probably a pretty safe bet to say that this one will happen.
Pictures: CyPhy Works