DroneBlocks

Product North Stars

What we're building toward. Companion to the Operating Foundation — that's how we run; this is what we build.

roadmap v0 · draftreviewed 2026-06-22owner Dennis
shipping working today partial foundation in place early not yet started

// north star 01

Affordability — a DEXI for every classroom

Drive the bill of materials down until price reaches every K-12 budget.

DEXI-3 BOM under $500.

partial
CM5 spike pushed cost up (~$140 vs $65); CM4 fallback in validationBOM per model vs target

DEXI-10 BOM under $1000.

early
not yet driven downBOM vs target
How we get there: ≥2 qualified suppliers per critical part (sourced to spec, not brand) · US-manufacturing shift to cut China + customs risk · design simplification.  Ladders to: the Hardware principle “every model hits a target BOM that protects margin.”

// north star 02

Multi-drone autonomy — from one drone to a coordinated fleet

From a single aircraft to coordinated multi-drone operations.

Reliable indoor position-hold + navigation (no GPS).

partial
single-drone working via optical flow + AprilTag (EKF2_EV_CTRL); UWB anchors in R&D (~$30/ea)indoor hold accuracy

Multi-drone swarm.

early
not yet# drones coordinated

Multi-drone light show.

partial
outsourced today (LiteBee — quality/customs issues); DEXI-3 planned as in-house light-show dronelight-show drone count

Software supports multi-drone configurations natively.

early
stack is single-drone todaymax drones in one config

// north star 03

Sim-to-real parity — what you do in the sim prepares you for real

The sim is a true rehearsal for the real aircraft — a digital twin, not a toy.

🎯Flying DEXI in the Ground School sim transfers to IRL DEXI flight.

🎯Coding DEXI in the sim transfers to IRL DEXI coding.

Flight parity — sim and real share the same PX4 protocol; rosbridge maps the same flight verbs to both.

partial
protocol shared; verbs mapped% sim actions identical on real

Coding parity — MavSDK / block curriculum runs against sim and real; same code paths.

partial
same code runs bothlessons running sim→real unchanged

Environment parity — real spaces scanned (Polycam) into the sim with collisions.

partial
digital twins provenscenes with a real-world twin

The bar: a lesson authored once runs sim→real unchanged; what you learn in sim “just works” on hardware.

early
the goal statezero-change sim→real lessons