Learnings from Glide's "Alpha" Prototype Development

Greetings from the Glidance Product & Engineering teams!

October has been an exciting month of activity for us, with the first of our "Alpha" prototype units being fully assembled, tested, refined and retested. While the team has worked long hours this month, it’s been an extremely rewarding and productive process as we’ve overcome a number of technical challenges and unlocked a series of insights that continually improve Glide’s performance, functionality and design.  

As we begin preparing for another round of testing next month, we wanted to take a moment to share with you four key aspects of the product design that have advanced considerably over the past few months, and that we’re looking forward to gathering further input on in the weeks and months ahead!
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1) Optimizing Braking & Steering System

As some of our recent Demo Day participants may have experienced, one of our first Alpha prototypes had a steering system which was a bit too noisy and rumbly for our liking. We replaced our brake system and gear boxes to help reduce mechanical noise considerably, and are currently working on more refinements for the next version of our Alpha prototype!

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2) Thoughts on Weight & Momentum

We know that Glide’s overall weight is an important consideration for many folks, and we have been talking about a 6-7 lb (around 3kg) weight target. We are happy to share that now that we have our "Alpha" prototypes fully assembled, the weight of the current Alpha device is just over 7 pounds – which is about 1.5lbs lighter than our earlier Ada prototype.  

This weight may increase slightly with the addition of a second camera (more on that later) and slightly larger battery. However, interestingly enough, we're learning that the device might actually feel too lightweight for some people. There are some benefits to having it weigh slightly more so that users can feel more “momentum” while pushing it, which helps with the guidance. This is something we’re going to be discussing and testing quite a bit further until we find the optimal point.  
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3) Temperature Conditioning

We’ve been testing Glide in various scenarios and conditions, and so far have been very happy with the thermal performance. There have been no issues from the batteries, sensors, and electronics generating excessive heat, nor with Glide’s ability to operate within the range of temperatures which we’ve outlined (-5 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit) , which speaks very well to Glide's overall reliability.  
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4) Testing Two Stereo Depth Cameras

We are currently exploring the impact of upgrading from one to two stereo depth cameras. This new sensor architecture could prove more effective in mapping surroundings and detecting things like curbs or step drop offs, as well as overhead obstacles like overhanging tree limbs or signs. Stereo depth cameras give our sensors an ample range of data to be able to process a vast amount of environmental data more accurately and efficiently, and while one may be sufficient, we’re currently validating the benefits of new dual camera sensor approach, and aim to be putting this to the test in our upcoming Alpha user study.
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Upcoming Alpha Study in Boston

Finally, we will be testing our updated Alpha prototypes with a few Boston Gliders in the coming weeks. While originally planned for this, we decided to hold back the study by a few weeks so that we could incorporate all of these hardware updates to maximize our time and learnings together with our Alpha testers.

These key developments are really just the tip of the iceberg of things we’ve been working on to continually improve and refine Glide's core mechanics, design, functionality and user experience. We’re excited and encouraged by rapid progress our engineers are making, and want to reiterate how much we’re looking forward to more user testing in the coming weeks and months ahead!

We’ll be sharing more as we do so, and are looking forward to your thoughts, input, and participation along this journey!

Until next time,
Kyle , Nick, Chris, Marco, Lorien & the rest of the Product & Engineering teams.