History

"Honeybee is one of the world's great 'skunk works' for space robotics."
—Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 11, 2007

Honeybee was founded in 1983 as a systems integrator using off-the-shelf robots. Our first offices were above a piano shop on the Lower East Side of New York City; we had just three employees. Early work included robotic arms, robot end-effectors, and smart task oriented mechanical systems, for companies like IBM, Allied Signal, The Salk Institute, Merck, 3M, Artkcraft Strauss, and Con Edison. We quickly gained a reputation for our innovative design skills and creative problem solving.

Honeybee received its first NASA contract in 1986 and has subsequently worked on over 100 projects with nearly all the NASA centers. We have supplied hardware for three Mars missions, including the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) for the 2003 MER Mission, the Icy Soil Acquisition Device (ISAD) and Thermal Evolved Gas Analyser (TEGA) dust cover for the 2007 Phoenix Mission, and the Sample Manipulation System (SMS) and Dust Removal Tool (DRT) for the 2011 MSL Mission.

We are dedicated to developing technology and products for next generation advanced robotic and spacecraft systems that must operate in increasingly dynamic, unstructured and often hostile environments. In addition to our NASA work, we work with the Department of Defense, academia, and industry. Our products and technologies range from complete systems to subsystems to critical, enabling technologies.

Honeybee is now a company of over 35 employees and $6M+ in yearly revenues. We are still based in Manhattan, in one of the few neighborhoods still zoned for manufacturing—the Far West Side. Our headquarters at 460 West 34th Street used to be known as the Master Printers Building, and housed many printing presses. When it was completed in 1927, it was one of the country's tallest reinforced concrete buildings. In this building near Midtown's transit hub, we are able to cost-effectively house a machine shop, assemble products in a Class-100 clean environment, and test them in chambers simulating the toughest environments; all while attracting the finest engineering talent in the tri-state area to make it all happen.