From Idea to High Volume Manufacturing

The Journey of

Rustom Jehangir and Joe Spadola

MakerCon 2014

May 13, 2014

Photo © Elena Kalis

Introduction

Rustom “Rusty” Jehangir Co-Founder and Engineer,

BlueRobotics

Joe Spadola Co-Founder and Engineer,

BlueRobotics

What we’re going to talk about

• Our idea: Would it be useful?

• Market & Feasibility: Do people need it? Will it work?

• Idea to Prototype: Methods and Revisions

• Prototype to Production: How will we get there?

What do we want you to learn?

• Learn from our experiences

• Learn from our mistakes

• Have a better idea of what it takes to get from idea to working prototype

• Where you might go after that

The Idea

We were looking for a cool side project to do for fun. Why not make a solar powered surfboard

and send it from LA to Hawaii?

• GPS Guided

• Arduino

• Satcom

• Solar panels

• Compass

• Temp + pH measurement

• Two thrusters

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

✔ ✔

X

2,500 miles 2-3 months

Looking for a thruster? Here are your options.

Commercial ROV Thrusters:

• Very expensive ($750-$3600)

• Hard to buy for the average consumer

• Bulky • Require

maintenance often • 300-3,000 ft depth

Hack-a-pump: • Bilge pump, remove

impeller, add propeller

• Cheap ($20) • Poor performance • Limited depth

RC Airplane Brushless Motor:

• Cheap ($20) • Not depth limited • High risk of shorts • Inevitable corrosion

especially in saltwater

What’s needed is something in the middle: a high-performing, purpose-built, but affordable thruster.

Market & Feasibility Questions

• Is designing a thruster worth pursuing?

• Is there a market for that thruster?

• Can it provide the foundation for a sustainable business?

• Are there related products we can pursue to grow?

Market Research

Academic Competitions

Hobbyists

There are also many academic and commercial uses for marine robotics – these organizations usually have no choice but to buy expensive options.

NURC 100+ robotics teams total, most use 6+ thrusters

1,000s of members

“The ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contains 97 percent of the planet's water, yet more than 95 percent of the underwater world remains unexplored.”

- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

“When it comes to ‘Ocean Exploration’, the greatest ocean explorers of all time are more than likely still in middle school since that generation of future explorers will explore more of Earth than all previous generations combined.” - Dr. Robert D. Ballard, President of the Ocean Exploration Trust and Director

of the Center for Ocean Exploration

“With the challenges we currently face, environmentally and economically, we cannot leave exploration of our blue planet up to governments alone. Instead, quite the opposite: We need to crowdsource innovators from around the globe to take up the charge of discovering the secrets our ocean holds, while working to preserve it.”

- Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman & CEO of XPRIZE

Looking Forward

Future Market • In our opinion, marine robotics is at the same place UAVs were 10 years

ago.

– Dominated by a few companies

– Government and big-business commercial customers

– Lack a of reliable, dedicated parts

• Open-source software and electronics + cheap components + online communities Hobbyist UAV boom

– 40,000+ member communities

– Numerous successful small businesses

• The limiting factor for marine robotics is lack of quality, affordable components

– Thrusters, tethers, underwater connectors, vehicles

– Open-source electronics, software can be leveraged

Early Design: Rev. 1-2

Approach: • Replicate a commercial-grade thruster: encased motor + propeller +

nozzle • Use injection molded parts • Use a cheap off-the-shelf brushless • Use an axial magnetic couple to seal motor from water • Oil compensated for depth

Rev. 1:

Early Design: Rev. 3-4

Changes:

• Radial magnetic couple

• Decided a purpose-built brushless motor might be best

• Used all 3D printing

Rev. 4:

Current Design: Rev. 5A-B

Approach:

• Started from scratch with a new, unique design around January 1st

• Lots of advantages in size, performance, and cost

• No enclosed air or oil, fewer components, half the price in parts

• Patent pending design

Rev. 4:

3.8”

Test Motor Iteration

Series of test motors to find the best motor design.

• Varied stators, windings, magnets, air gap, bearings

• Documented results

Testing

Built a test stand

• Measures thrust, power, RPM

• Arduino, Raspberry Pi, results plotted live online to bluerobotics.com/live

Exposure testing of components

• Submersion in seawater for thousands of hours

• Documented observations

Lessons Learned During Prototyping

• 3D printing is AWESOME!

• A CAD design only goes so far

• The conventional design may not be the best design

• It’s okay to throw away a bad design when you find a better one

Prototype to Production

• What quantity do we need to order to get discounts?

• How do we know if the quotes are reasonable?

• What suppliers do we use?

• How can we (affordably) assemble in the USA?

• What processes can we automate / streamline?

• How do we fund production?

Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award

• Provides injection molded plastic tooling for cool ideas. Up to $250K total each year.

• We were selected in April

• Currently finalizing tooling

• Great experience so far

Check out past Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award Winners at the Innovation Showcase tonight, 6-8pm!

Suppliers and Quantities

• We’re currently finding suppliers for parts – mostly from China – MOQ?

– Lead time?

• Alibaba

• Ideally purchase through US company with Chinese connections with large markup – Saves time

– Ensures reliability

Is it feasible to assemble here?

• Assembly here would give us tighter control of the process

– Predictable Final Customer Ship (FCS) dates

• How can we streamline the assembly to minimize time required?

– Jigs

– Batch assembly

– Automation

Funding

• Self-funded + Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award

• Launching a Kickstarter campaign this summer

– Will (hopefully) cover bulk purchasing costs and some of our development costs

– Many expected initial customers use Kickstarter already

Other Challenges

• Domain name: www.bluerobotics.com

Questions, comments, suggestions?

Thank you!

www.bluerobotics.com