BostInno
This Startup Can Pinpoint Your Location Within a Millimeter
By: Emily McNeiece
If you’ve ever been frustrated by inaccurate GPS directions, Humatics feels your pain.
The Waltham-based startup is developing an advanced type of navigational technology. Its platform, the Spatial Intelligence Platform, uses microlocation, a locating technique that can pinpoint the exact position of a target with accuracy up to a millimeter. Humatics wants to be the new GPS, one that can even work well indoors, underground, and in cities.
The original idea for Humatics came from a surprising place: the ocean. David Mindell, the co-founder and CEO of the company, started his career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he worked on developing precision navigation for deep ocean exploration. Then, at MIT, he studied human interaction with autonomous systems. Mindell was inspired to bring his deep-sea findings to the surface world, replacing his work with sonar technology to work with radar.
“I spent 20 years working in the deep ocean, which is super fascinating but still a pretty niche kind of environment,” Mindell said. “The number of people who need precision navigation for three miles of water is not very big, and I’ve always wanted to bring that experience into the world of industrial robots and increasing the automation of the supply chain.”
Mindell started Humatics in 2015 after a transition in his work from ocean to air.
“I spent a lot of years doing aerospace and autonomous helicopters and autonomous aircraft of different kinds,” said Mindell. “I apply all that experience to founding Humatics.”
The company recently closed an additional round of Series A-1 funding totaling $28 million, a figure that brings its total Series A round to $46 million and its total funding to over $50 million.
Right now, Humatics is using its products for various forms of robotic navigation. It’s currently working with public transit systems to help them navigate more precisely in underground and city environments. Another main market is e-commerce fulfillment and distribution.
Humatics sets itself apart from similar startups with one central promise: reliability. Unlike many precision navigation programs, Humatics’ Spatial Intelligence Platform is not subject to weather conditions, like snow and rain, and aims to be as precise as possible.
“Our system is really the industrial-grade microlocation system and is something that companies can actually bet their supply chain on, bet their production line on,” said Mindell.
In the future, Humatics wants to be the “locational substrate” for the Internet of Moving Things.
“We see navigation as the connective tissue that ties together the three key elements of humans, robots, and infrastructure,” said Mindell.
