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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 U.S. Army says 19-year-old William E. Colby was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950. His remains were identified just this year using DNA technology.
MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly 74 years to the day since he was officially deemed Missing in Action during the Korean war, a Minneapolis soldier finally reached his final resting place.
The burial at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, which came with full military honors, brought closure to the family of Army Corporal William Colby, but it couldn’t bring back the family – and memories – that have long since passed.
“I was little,” said Jinny Bouvette, Corporal Colby’s cousin, who is also among the few surviving family members who ever met him. “We were about nine years difference when he joined the service, I was ten.”
For years, Bouvette says her memories of her cousin Billy, were always clouded by sadness by what happened just months after he deployed to fight in the Korean War.
Colby was just 19 years old and serving in the Korean War when he was declared missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the Chinese People’s Army as they attempted to withdraw from the Chosin Reservoir.
“They figure that’s where Billy was,” Bouvette said, pointing to a green circle on a printed map of the Chosin Reservoir. “That’s where he was the last time that he was reported (alive).”
The young soldier could not be recovered following the battle, and the U.S. Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.
“We never thought of him as being killed in action, we always thought of him as just missing,” Bouvette said. “My aunt, she always thought he was alive somewhere.”
His fate was finally confirmed for family members by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on May 2, 2024, after Colby’s remains were identified from 55 boxes of remains returned to the U.S. by the North Korean government in 2018.
The process required a DNA analysis of his remains and a sample from a living relative before it could be matched and verified.
Bouvette says representatives initially tried to reach her, but it wasn’t until learning that her aunt and cousin had submitted those DNA samples that she realized what was happening.
“At first I thought they were just people trying to scam old people, and I wouldn’t answer them,” she said, with a laugh. “But eventually, that’s how I found out that he was really, really gone.”
Just a few months later, the Army’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch helped return his remains, along with a jacket adorned with a full accounting of his honors.
“He didn’t get them when he was alive,” Bouvette said. “So I told them to put them in the casket with him, so he’s got them now.”
She did decide to hold on to one of his awards for herself, Colby’s Purple Heart.
“I just can’t tell you what it feels like,” she said, looking at the military medal in her hand. “It fills your heart right up. It just fills your heart right up.”
Yet it can’t quite compare to seeing his procession finally reach its end.
“My heart is so full… it is overflowing,” she said. “I just can’t… I have no words. I’m just glad that he’s here, and to know he’s home now. He’s home.”
JayCee Cooper filed a lawsuit against USA Powerlifting after the organization banned her from participating in women’s competitions.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The conversation inside the Minnesota State Capitol on Tuesday was focused on sports, but a different type of competition was taking place inside the court chambers. Two opposing sides are vying for the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule in their favor in the case of Cooper v. USA Powerlifting.
Transgender woman and athlete JayCee Cooper filed discrimination charges with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights in 2019 after USA Powerlifting banned her from participating in women’s competitions. In 2021, Cooper filed a lawsuit against USA Powerlifting.
The lawsuit claims USA Powerlifting’s ban on transgender women is “an outlier among international, national and local sports organizations,” pointing to the International Olympic Committee’s framework regarding inclusion of athletes and their gender identities.
The case made its way through the state’s courts over several years before landing in the hands of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Oral arguments took place Tuesday morning, in which Cooper was represented by Gender Justice attorney Christy Hall and USA Powerlifting was represented by attorney Ansis Viksnins.
Gender Justice is a legal nonprofit organization based in St. Paul. In a press conference Tuesday morning, the organization’s legal director Jess Braverman said USA Powerlifting is violating Cooper’s rights under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
“Every Minnesotan deserves the freedom to pursue their dreams without fear of exclusion or discrimination,” Braverman said. “Ms. Cooper was denied that right, solely because she is transgender.”
Viksnins, the attorney representing USA Powerlifting, said Cooper was excluded from women’s competitions due to her biological sex, not gender identity. “It’s not discrimination based on gender identity. That’s the problem for Ms. Cooper’s case: that the differentiation here was because of her biological sex, not for gender identity.”
In 2021, USA Powerlifting launched its MX category, providing a separate division for athletes of all gender identities. “It doesn’t solve the problem of transgender women being barred from women’s competitions, which is the issue here,” Braverman said.
There is no clear timeline as to when the Supreme Court will makes its decision on the case.
The portion of the Kellogg-Third Street Bridge over I-94 is coming down.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The portion of the Kellogg-Third Street Bridge over I-94 is coming down this weekend.
Demolition started in August but they’ve been doing one section at a time. MnDOT says to expect jackhammering around the clock.
City engineers first noticed cracks in its supports in 2014 and limited its capacity. But it’s taken 10 years for the city to come up with the $91 million it will take to build a new one, and it won’t be finished until 2027.
I-94 will be closed this weekend between 35E and Highway 61 in St. Paul.
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