I am currently a Field Engineer (FE) at Exyn Technologies, a robotics company enabling aerial autonomy in GPS-denied locations for the purposes of mapping and data collection. We take a drone (DJI’s Matrice 210 for example), mount off-the-shelf hardware on it and deploy our proprietary autonomy platform to the system. Our software enables the robot to navigate its environment using only sensors onboard, collecting valuable data along the way. Our system is 100% autonomous since we don’t use GPS signals, remote controls, wireless networks, or need line-of-sight for operations.
Skills:
- Basic robotics
- Drone pilotry
- Drone hardware/software
- Linux
- Product Testing
- Product Management
- Embedded Systems
Shots from the Field
My role as an FE is to take the robot into the field, be it in Bulgaria, Finland, South Africa, or Canada, and demonstrate and/or test its capabilities. At this time, we work primarily in underground mines mapping huge vertical shafts called stopes. We operate the system for both our R&D team and customers and train the latter for product hand-offs. Often, we spend several weeks walking a customer through the system, ensuring they can operate it without our help and can troubleshoot minor hiccups.
When not traveling, our team assists with R&D by building, testing and optimizing systems for use in the field. We work on diverse projects from ATP flights to integrating and debugging new features. For example, I assembled our payload onto a new drone platform, debugged it, and enabled data collection for vibration tests as part of an effort to qualify alternative drone platforms.
I’m also the FE Team Lead for Product Development, in charge of gathering user feedback, requirements, and suggestions to fold into our user experience product roadmaps. I am working on streamlining how we collect and parse through our customers’ feedback and create actionable paths forward to improve their experiences.