Joe Clark has been launching successful business since he was a teenager, trying his hand in furniture, coffee and real estate.

Now he has turned to Eclipse Rover, a remote-controlled video platform.

Clark and his wife, Brenda, started Frontier Furniture in 1973. As their furniture business flourished, the couple branched out and opened several coffee shops. Eventually they sold Frontier Furniture and their coffee shops and started a new venture in real estate.

Unfortunately for the Clarks, the 2008 stock market downturn came as they were working on a large land development in Costa Rica.

“The crash took the wind out of our sails,” Clark said. Forced to start over, Clark turned back to videography, something he had been doing for most of his life. However, he found the equipment available wasn’t able to do what he needed, so he decided to build it himself.

Now, about 40 years after starting his first business, Clark is launching another venture to fill a niche in video production.

Clark has created the Eclipse Rover, a radio-controlled device that can take a camera across almost any terrain.

While remote-control aerial drones have become popular among both commercial and amateur photographers as a way to get cameras in unique places, Clark said that in a lot of situations, they still aren’t the right tools.

“It’s a great tool for capturing aerial shots, but there are a lot of places that it’s not appropriate,” Clark said. “To solve that problem I just tried to come up with a solution.”

He developed a pan-and-tilt device that ran on cable, but found it swayed and wasn’t stable. So he decided to try it with four wheels.

He remembered the radio-controlled cars his son used to play with, borrowed one from his grandson and began experimenting in his garage in Somers.

Eventually the experiment led him to the eclipse wheel. The wheel is set up to run on cables, ropes or trusses, but is smaller than the regular tire on the rover, allowing the vehicle to move around on the ground while the eclipse wheels are attached. The wheel even allows the rover to be operated from a truss upside down.

“I couldn’t find that anyone else had done this before,” Clark said. Being an entrepreneur, Clark knew he had found a way to fill a need.

“This fills the gap between drones and traditional video equipment,” Clark said.

Clark developed several different models to suit needs of different videographers. There is a small consumer model set up to hold a GoPro camera or a phone. There is another model set to hold professional video equipment that can hold up to 100 pounds. And there are several other models in between.

Depending on the model, the rovers will be priced between $400 and $3,000.

The plates that hold the cameras are designed so they can be removed and attached to other surfaces, such as a car or boat.

The electronics are waterproof and the rovers are designed for rugged terrain.

“It’s not just the rover, it’s the whole system,” he said. “That’s what it does, it makes your equipment mobile.”

Clark has spent a year developing the product and is ready to make it available to the public, but first he needs money to put the wheels into production.

He launched an Indiegogo campaign on Friday, and hopes to raise over $40,000 on the crowdfunding platform.

“I think it’s a good product,” Clark said. “It’s my hope that it opens up a whole new word for creativity.”

Online:

eclipserover.com