ENGINEERING PHILOSOPHY

Urban Robotics’ Engineering Philosophy centers on the following mantra:

1. COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) whenever possible
Urban Robotics relies on an unbiased, efficient marketplace to provide state-of-the-art systems. Our products can then quickly evolve with marketplace advances. Techniques and equipment superseded by the marketplace are deemed “throw-aways”. The generation life-time for most system elements is typically 12 to 18 months.

2. Scalable, Open, Modular and Networked architectures
By building scalability and modularity into the fundamental architecture of Urban Robotics products and services, we can adapt and address problems that can only be found after deployment. System upgrades and integration are also greatly simplified.

3. KISS -- Keep It Simple
Occam’s Razor is the best cure for paralysis by requirements creep. Our products encourage a strong mission targeted design, allowing for quick mission turnaround time.

4. Destroy Ivory Towers
In the first generation of our products and services, we attack high budget problems by using engineering and algorithmic muscle to deliver 95% solutions at 50% the cost. With this approach, our architectures are liberated from the established engineering approaches that have exhausted their growth in capabilities. Subsequent generations are thus freed to exceed the 100% mark.

5. Succeed by Failing
Architecting a product the right way the first time is the equivalent of a robin hood in archery or a hole in one in golf. We believe in learning by doing - the truly hard problems only appear after you’ve completed your first attempt at meeting the requirements. Equally important is the scrapping of the first attempt, as opposed to incremental band aids that ultimately will dead-end a long term capability prematurely.