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Minnesota business sells newest tech from robotic dogs to drones
Maverick Drone Systems says its tech makes work easier for farmers and safer for first responders.
SAVAGE, Minn. — The latest technology is “taking off” from a Savage-based business and it’s being used for everything from agriculture to public safety.
Then again, some of it’s just for fun.
The Unitree Go1, for example, is a robotic dog that can roll over, follow humans, climb stairs and even dance. With cameras for eyes, the furless pups are manufactured in China and are sold locally at Maverick Drone Systems for around $4,500.
“It’s just a really fun toy,” marketing director Oscar Salinas said. “More of the consumer level, kind of show off to your friends that you got a nifty cool dog.”
As their name suggests, Maverick Drone Systems also sell drones. Agriculture sales representative Jay Sorg says their agricultural drones are making work more efficient for farmers.
“I grew up on a dairy farm in Hastings, Minnesota, and I still farm with my dad,” Sorg said. “So with farmers, say we get an inch of rain and you want to apply fungicide to go out there with a wheel, a wheeled machine, you don’t want to be on that field when it’s wet. So with this drone, you don’t have to be in the field. You’re above the field.”
Sorg says the drones can also save farmers money.
“Doing this yourself, versus paying a helicopter or plane to do your air application or hiring a ground rig from a co-op to do it, this machine pays for itself after you applicate 4,000 acres of fungicide,” he said. “We’ve had quite a few customers. You know, they buy one and they do their own, and then all of a sudden, they’re doing their neighbor’s and so it’s an opportunity for them to branch out and offer services to the community.”
The agricultural drones are in high demand. Their latest shipment brought 40 boxes of the newest model to the store.
“These weigh about 60, 75 pounds with the battery in them, empty, and then their max takeoff weight is 190 pounds,” Sorg said. “They treat you just like a crop duster, the FAA does, because you are technically an aircraft in the air.”
Maverick stocks replacement parts in store, with plans to offer repairs in the future. They already offer commercial drone repairs.
In addition to farmers, first responders are customers. Specifically, police departments are purchasing tactical drones.
“Pretty much all of the metro is using it now,” said Tony Caspers, the company’s new public safety director. “St. Paul Police just came on board.”
Caspers has a background in law enforcement. He says this type of technology can make certain situations safer for both law enforcement and the public.
“I retired just recently with 32 years and I served in the Minneapolis Police Department,” Caspers said. “The biggest thing with the drones is de-escalation, right? Instead of putting a police officer that’s armed in front of somebody that’s, you know, having a really bad day, they can come in with the drone.
“The other thing on this is also just efficiency of our job,” he continued. “You can actually map a crime scene down to the centimeter. So we’re no longer running tape measures and spending hours on a scene. We can take this out of the car crash, we can map and 3D map and print the whole car crash within 5 minutes instead of closing a freeway down for hours.”
And it turns out the robotic dog isn’t all play.
“It ranges from entry-level all the way up to tactical,” Salinas explained.
The tactical version can scan buildings like schools and memorize layouts, creating a ready-to-go map that could help during emergencies.
“So the robot dog … that’s going to be more inside and controlled environments where you can’t maybe fly,” Caspers said. “Just set the dog up and let it monitor something in a hallway. So now you have a camera sitting in a hallway and you can move it as you need to.”
“Not as cute [as a K9], but you don’t have to feed it or clean up after it.”
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The crash happened when a Suburban pulling a trailer failed to stop at a stop sign, Minnesota State Patrol said.
WAUKENABO, Minn. — Two people from Minnetonka died in a crash Friday in Aitkin County while others, including children, were hurt.
According to Minnesota State Patrol, it happened at the intersection of Highway 169 and Grove Street/County Road 3 in Waukenabo Township at approximately 5:15 p.m.
A Suburban pulling a trailer was driving east on County Road 3 but did not stop at the stop sign at Highway 169, authorities said. The vehicle was struck by a northbound GMC Yukon. Two other vehicles were struck in the crash, but the people in those two cars were not injured.
In the Suburban, the driver sustained life-threatening injuries, according to State Patrol. Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, of Minnetonka, and Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, of Minnetonka, both died. Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old from Minnetonka, has life-threatening injuries.
There were six people in the Yukon when the crash occurred. The 44-year-old driver, as well as passengers ages 18, 14, and 11, sustained what officials described as life-threatening injuries. The other two passengers have non-life-threatening injuries.
Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, but officials said Elizabeth Jane Baldwin had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Among those at the start line this year will be Alex Vigil.
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Pixar’s second installment of the movie features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
MINNEAPOLIS — Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” universe plays out inside the mind of the movie’s adolescent protagonist, Riley.
She plays a kid from Minnesota whose family uproots her life by moving to San Francisco. But did you know that what plays out in Riley’s mind actually comes from the mind of a real-life Minnesotan?
“You are one of us!” said Breaking the News anchor Jana Shortal.
“Yes, I am!” said Burnsville native and the movie’s creator and director, Kelsey Mann.
Mann was chosen for the role by ANOTHER Minnesotan — Pete Docter, the man behind the original movie, “Inside Out.”
“I don’t know if Pete asked me to do this movie because I was from Minnesota and he was from Minnesota … I just think it worked out that way,” Mann said.
How two guys from the south metro made a pair of Pixar movies that would change the game is a hell of a story that began with Docter in 2015.
“He [Docter] was just trying to tell a fun story — an emotional, fun story — and didn’t realize how much it would help give kids a vocabulary to talk about things they were feeling because they are feeling those emotions, but they’re really hard to talk about,” Mann said.
Some parents, counselors and teachers might even tell you it did more good for kids than just entertain them. It unlocked their emotions and begged for what Mann set out to create at the beginning of 2020.
“That part was fun, particularly fun,” he said. “I think the daunting part was following up a film that everyone really loved.”
But Mann knew what he wanted to do with the movie’s follow-up, “Inside Out 2.”
“Diving into Riley’s adolescence … that was just fun,” he said.
This time around, Riley is 13, hitting puberty and facing all of what, and who, comes with it. The franchise’s second installment features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
“I think that’s what’s fun about the ‘Inside Out’ world: You can take something we all know and give it a face,” Mann said. “We can give anxiety a name and a face.”
The film follows Riley’s emotions fighting it out for control of her life. Joy wants Riley to stay young and hold on only to joy, while anxiety is hell-bent on taking over Riley over at the age of 13 because as a lot of us know, that’s when anxiety often moves in.
“I always pitched it as a takeover movie, like an emotional takeover,” Mann said. “Anxiety can kind of feel like that; it can take over and kind of shove your other emotions to the side and repress them.”
For a kids’ movie, it’s hard to watch this animation play out, even when an adult has the keys to decide.
“I’m making a movie about anxiety and I still have to remind myself to have my anxiety take a seat,” Mann said.
All of our individual anxieties have a place in this world.
“The whole movie honestly is about acceptance. Both acceptance of anxiety being there and also of your own flaws,” said Mann.
Even for our kids, we have to remember that this is life.
Anxiety will come for them; it does for us all.
The “Inside Out” world just shows them it’s so.
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