Dronesmith Technologies

Dronesmith Technologies, Inc., initially founded as Skyworks Aerial Systems in 2014 by Jinger Zeng and Greg Friesmuth, operated with a clear focus on the drone development market. The company ceased operations around December 2017. The founders, both mechanical engineering graduates from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, combined their expertise to address a significant gap in the drone industry. Zeng had a background in solar and IoT, notably leading a winning team in the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon, while Friesmuth had been building quadcopters since his freshman year, culminating in an award-winning senior design project that formed the basis of their initial business plan.

The company's primary business was providing software and hardware tools to streamline the drone application development process for developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. This B2B model was designed to reduce the complexity and time-to-market for those building end-to-end drone solutions. Dronesmith's core offering was a toolkit of APIs and middleware that facilitated the integration of hardware, embedded systems, and software, allowing developers to focus on their end application rather than the underlying infrastructure. In February 2016, the company rebranded from Skyworks Aerial Systems to Dronesmith Technologies to better reflect its mission of serving the 'dronesmiths' or developers who craft drone solutions. One of their key products was Luci, an advanced flight controller designed to simplify the integration of drones into Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Another early product under the Skyworks brand was a DIY drone kit called Eedu, which came with open-source development software named Forge.

Headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, the formerly venture-capital-backed startup raised approximately $1.22 million through various funding rounds, including participation in the Techstars IoT accelerator program in 2016. The company aimed to standardize and accelerate the pipeline for drone data, effectively offering a backend-as-a-service so clients could get to market significantly faster. Despite winning several awards and gaining early traction, Dronesmith Technologies is now listed as out of business.

Keywords: drone development tools, drone API, flight controller, drone software, UAV development, robotics, IoT drone integration, drone application development, Skyworks Aerial Systems, Jinger Zeng, Greg Friesmuth, Luci flight controller, Eedu drone kit, drone middleware, developer toolkit, aerial robotics, programmable drones, drone data management, Techstars IoT, drone-as-a-service