Because all good ideas have to start somewhere.
Smart People with Crazy Ideas that Might Just Work…
But probably won’t. Most ideas are bad ideas, but that doesn’t meant they aren’t fun to prove out one way or the other. Oh the math, the metal, the mess! The Vermont Bad Idea Company, a subsidiary of the Vermont Idea Company, is where our engineers try out the crazy stuff that isn’t ready for prime time, or just isn’t a financially viable project…yet…because we want to, and it’s fun.
A bunch of creative ideas, half baked ideas, and some really odd conversation. Let’s face it. No finished piece of hardware comes out perfect the first time. Whether it’s a rocket, medical implant, or a blender, design takes thought, analysis, prototyping, and iteration…and more iteration…and sometimes even more iteration. While we’re happy to design on paper, we truly specialize in design through prototyping and testing. And until these designs are ready for prime time, they’ll live over at the Bad Idea side of the Vermont Idea Company. It’s not that we don’t think these are good ideas, it’s just that we’re just having too much fun to call it business.
Here are some of our half-baked, very doughy in the middle projects.
Works in progress
Telerobotics for Students
With Covid, many students are at doing school at home and/or using school extra curricular resources event less. This means that there is an army of lonely Lego robots sitting in classrooms around the world. We’re working to get Lego EV3 robots networked so that students can remotely program and operate robots in spaces all around the world from the safety of their own home.
See a viable solution using Open Roberta and our other trade studies.
Personal Snowmaking
A cold winter without good snow is not a fun winter. Why not just make more snow for home so you can enjoy skiing and sledding in your yard no matter how random the winter weather gets. We’re developing a quiet personal snowmaking system for below freezing weather.
Ballistic Breakfast
Pancakes are awesome. But wouldn’t they be even more awesome if delivered via cannon? Well…we pursued the idea anyway.