World-Class Engineers. Working for you.
We bring together engineers from the top 2% to tackle your technology challenges. Find out more.
Paladin Engineering is a hybrid cloud-based engineering “skunkworks” that eliminates all the unnecessary overhead expenses associated with traditional consulting firms while providing the highest quality engineering services.
Failure is Not an Option
We handle idiosyncratic, bet-the-company problems that require deep expertise and creative problem-solving. We have the ability to solve complex challenges. We keep up with the State-of-The-Art in our core competencies.
Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
We are owned and led by service-disabled veterans. We bring a few things with us that you won’t find quite the same anywhere else.
- Government Contracts: There is a 3% set aside for Veteran owned businesses in government contracts. We can help you land those contracts.
- Calm-Under-Fire, Mission-Focused: These are not slogans for us. They are a way of life. We’re passionate about success. We know how to mitigate risks and operate out of our comfort zone. In fact, we love it!
- Work-ethic: Work Hard. Play Hard. We get it done. Every time.
- Teamwork: We know how to work in a team environment. We know what needs to be done to work in a unit. Let us be a part of YOUR Team.
Advantages Of A Cloud-Based Engineering Team
One of the largest financial burdens that traditional engineering firms carry is the rent and maintenance of office space and large machine shops for prototyping. We don’t have that. We have only the people, software, hardware, tools and equipment we need to get the job done.
However, intelligent and innovative use of cloud-based technology, combined with a revolution in desktop prototyping, makes the need for large physical offices obsolete. CAD models, software development, 3D printers, desktop mills and remote work technologies like Zoom and Slack mean we can collaborate closely without being physically together.
At Paladin Robotics, we still have prototyping and manufacturing capability. We have both in-house and a network of on-demand services. We have a great team distributed all over the world, which means we can be working on your project 24/7 if we need to.
How Will You Benefit?
By trimming all the excess expenses and passing those savings on to our clients, our engineers can instead devote their full efforts to solving their clients’ problems and working together as a cohesive team without the necessity of being collocated in a physical office.
Our cloud computing capabilities create great opportunity to effectively communicate across geographies for both engineers and clients, allowing us to bring the most-qualified engineers for your project to your project team.
Trusted By Both New And Established Companies
Why Work With Us?
- We will save you time, money and headaches.
You’re getting the best engineers for the best value, and no overhead…like NONE. No Salaries. No rent. No software. No equipment. No downtime. We have all of it covered.
- Our Design and production process is streamlined.
Fast turnaround times. Efficient workflows. No distractions. No dead time. We can, and HAVE, turned around prototypes in a single day.
- Flexibility.
You only have to hire us for when when you need us. You don’t even have to be sure exactly what you need. We’ll help you optimize. We can even customize a team to suit your needs.
- You’re more likely to get a patentable innovation working with us.
By design, we’re more broadly skilled than your employees. We’re always working on state-of-art projects and pushing out of our comfort zone. So we often bring creative perspectives and fresh insights, tempered by DECADES of experience.
- You want to work with world-class professionals.
You can expect top-notch communication, transparency and professionalism. That’s not marketing copy. We’ve worked with global corporations and institutions. Once upon a time, our founder was part of the team that trained NATO’s I SAF VII in communications, for real.
- You want professionals dedicated to your ideas.
When you hire us, you’re hiring extremely competent people who care about your project and who are dedicated to working with you!
Alwyn Smith, P.E.
Chief Engineer
Alwyn is responsible for delivering the product development services that turn ideas into solutions. Whether its product development, an exploratory project, or creating a custom solution for a client problem, Alwyn leads the charge to explore and exploit the latest technological advances.
Alwyn has a tremendous breadth of engineering experience as an electro-mechanical engineer for almost 20 years, having applied his engineering skills in military, civil, and industrial robotics sectors. A former U.S. Army officer, Alwyn is passionate about creating talented and capable teams, innovation, and robotics.
Alwyn holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy, at West Point, as well as Masters degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University. Alwyn is an Army combat veteran with service in Iraq and the Balkans.
We Support Organizations
We Contain Multitudes
Working with us means you’re also working with a network of experts. They have our backs, and we’ve got yours. Here are some of the professional organizations we’re proud to be a part of.
Frequently Asked Questions
We build innovative products with emerging technologies. We work with clients who are pushing the technological envelope with high-stakes outcomes. We are FAST and we are GOOD at what we do. We’re able to do this because we have a global pool of the most talented multi- disciplinary senior engineers. We’ve also got the equipment and the infrastructure needed to rapidly prototype hardware and software.
- Instant Startup: Putting together a startup is tough, time-consuming & expensive. We can save you time and money by already having the people, equipment, and know-how you need to build your product. While other startups are figuring out hiring, and building their processes from the ground up, we’re already working on your project and getting a prototype ready to bring to investors.
- Extend your team: You’ve already got a cutting edge research project and a small team of experts. We extend your in-house team, fill in skill gaps, and increase your bandwidth. Chances are we’ve got skills and equipment that will let your team focus on what they are best at.
- Custom Equipment: We are prototyping experts, so we’ve really good at making and improving custom machines. In cutting-edge research, there’s sometimes a need for a specialized piece of equipment that doesn’t exist because the market is too small or non-existent.
- Special Projects: Your very own Skunkworks. We can take responsibility for portions of your product development and help you explore new possibilities. We can manage the project and work autonomously to keep you focused on your core competencies, while keeping you in the driver’s seat.
- Product Development Team: You’ve got an idea, and you want a team to take it and run with it. We’ll take you step-by-step through the process of getting from concept to market.
- Micro Manufacturing Facilities: We can do so much more than design and produce a handful of prototypes. We’ve got the skills and the equipment to do low volume manufacturing, which will help you make the transition from prototyping to scale manufacturing with early production. To give you an idea of our capability, here’s some of our fabrication capabilities.
Think of us like a team of engineering mercenaries: ready to add our expertise to make your project awesome. In fact paladin means “a champion for a cause“, and thats what we are: a mercenary company of freelancers that you can hire to champion your project.
Paladin Robotics is a team of engineers & designers who specialize in helping businesses & inventors convert challenging high-tech ideas into
polished, practical products. Some examples of typical work include:
- Research & Development: You’ve got a cutting edge idea. You’ve had a technical breakthrough in your research. We’re experts at catching up with the latest peer-reviewed research, developing and implementing product solutions.
- Prototyping: We make things that work, quickly. We’ve got almost everything needed to build just about anything. Hardware, software or a bit of both, we can do it. You need a working prototype in three months to show investors? We can help.
- Custom Equipment: An increasing number of companies are seeing a huge return on investment in using bespoke automated machinery that is custom built and automated to suit their exact needs. Unlike product development, the end goal is a a small number of machines, or maybe a robotic work cell, so there’s no intention to mass-produce.
- Product Development: Unlike prototyping and custom equipment, which end with a small number of working models, product development is the process of turning a market opportunity into a scalable product available to sell. We can help get you from idea to manufacturing.
- Manufacturing & Assembly: At low volumes and for small parts, we can take care of the manufacturing and assembly ourselves. We’ve got the tools and experience needed to provide boutique manufacturing in-house. We can also help with part sourcing, factory sourcing, tooling management, factory management, shipping, logistics, & warehousing.
- New Product Introduction: This is the process and the management of taking an idea from concept to market. This includes R&D, prototyping, product development, manufacturing and assembly Creating a new product means managing a ton of moving parts simultaneously. We cover a lot of the action items as part of our Product Development services, but we we can handle the management as well under New Product Introduction services.
- Strategy Consulting: Vision, Execution, Context, Initiatives. Product strategy aims to provide context for what the product and business intends to achieve, the target customers and market, and the work to accomplish. We can’t (and wont) define these for you, but we can help guide you through the process of developing a strategy and we can support your initiatives through our other services.
In all cases, you own the intellectual property, and we hand over all the work products to you.
Our team specializes in cutting-edge innovation projects. Every member of the team has a graduate degree in their specialty and at least 10 years of post-graduate experience in the field.
We have subject matter experts in:
We like to live at the bleeding edge of technological development. We’re pushing the envelope of the fourth industrial revolution in the following areas:
- Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing: We’re experts at leveraging the latest technology for rapid prototyping and small run manufacturing. We have in-house prototyping workshops capable of PCB manufacturing and assembly, Rapid 3D Printing, Injection molding, and CNC Machining. For everything we can’t build in-house, we’ve got a great network of vendors who deliver on-time and on-budget.
- Electronics: At the heart of most new technology, we have decades of experience developing new electronics. We handle both hardware and software. Collectively, our team has worked in every aspect of electronics engineering from design development to testing and validation.
- Mechatronics: The fusion of software, hardware, electronic systems, control systems, and mechanical systems. We’ve got a wealth of experience developing mechatronic devices. For some examples, check out our portfolio.
- Robotics & Automation: A subset of mechatronics, this includes machine learning and autonomous machines. We also include advanced techniques including mission planning, motion control, sensor fusion, computer vision, and voice recognition. We have experience with both industrial automation and fully-autonomous robotic systems.
- Internet of Things: In addition to our electronics expertise, we’ve tackled some tough IoT projects requiring full stack development, networking, OTA updates, and data management. We’ve worked with wi-fi, cellular, satellite, Bluetooth, LoRa networks, just to name a few.
- AgriTech: We’ve got a special foothold in Agritech. In 2014, our founder was an invited speaker for the 2014 International Workshop on hive and bee monitoring, We’ve done work for Eurofins and Bayer Crop Science. We also operate a 13-acre agricultural research station where we support the development of monitoring systems and farm automation for smallholders. Our team includes veterinary support and animal husbandry, for poultry, small ruminants, fruit, nut, and vegetable crops.
- Emerging Technologies: We have close ties with universities and technology companies working on emerging technologies within our scope of interest. Our team includes several National Science Foundation Fellows and research experience in related fields. Specifically, we try to keep abreast of advancements in energy harvesting and storage, low-power sensors, low power electronics, wearables, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, nanotechnology, robotics and drones.
Engineering Disciplines We Cover
Tags: Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Manufacturing, Instrumentation and Controls, Computers, Electronics, Agricultural
Consumer electronics, agricultural products, military equipment, medical devices, robotics, smart devices, robotics, automation, IOT, toys, even fishing lures! – it’s fair to say we’ve been successful in many product fields. But our main expertise is in innovative consumer goods, where new technologies make new products possible.
Unless there is an electronic or electro-mechanical element intrinsic to the design, we generally can’t help with projects that are purely soft goods (e.g. clothing, luggage, shoes) or software (e.g. apps), but we’re happy to incorporate either as necessary into other designs.
Check out our portfolio for examples of the sort of work we do.
It depends on the project. We can take you from concept all the way through to manufacturing, and all the steps in-between.
Most of our clients receive a package of CAD data (SolidWorks, STEP files, etc.) that’s ready for production – rather than asking factories to spend time & money re-engineering a design for manufacture, we ensure that our 3D files can be sent to tooling the moment you receive them. We also supply whatever level of documentation you require for production, including engineering & inspection drawings.
Most clients request one or more working prototypes for their projects, from rough “breadboard” proofs-of-concept to polished “looks-like works- like” demos of their final product. We’re happy to manufacture & assemble a great-looking, functional prototype for you to show to potential investors & manufacturers.
Finally, we have manufacturing and assembly capability suitable for small pre-production and production runs. We’re like a miniature factory that specializes in small custom runs.
Because we cover a broad range of industries & product types with varying levels of complexity, it’s difficult to estimate what a particular project will cost without carefully evaluating its specific details. Past projects have ranged anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands.
We caution clients against assuming the simplicity/complexity (& ultimate cost) of their desired goals – we have experience with numerous examples of both deceptively “simple” problems that have required total rethinking from first principles, as well as seemingly intractable problems that were dissolved in seconds by reframing the question.
We’re good at turning a project around in a hurry; many of our clients hire us because their internal engineering staff is swamped with other work, & simply can’t deliver quality results by the desired deadline. However, the more time we have to iterate & polish solutions, the better your final deliverable will be.
The ultimate timeline of your project is up to you. We can throw everything we have at your problem for a week, or spend months carefully looking for the best & smartest way to solve it.