Airobotics, a fully automatic drone platform, announces its public launch today. As a completely automatic and operated aerial system, Airobotics empowers industrial companies to leverage the power of drones without the need for skilled and expensive drone operators. Airobotics’ platform enables customers to run missions autonomously to monitor, inspect, survey, and secure large industrial facilities and other strategic sites. Airobotics has secured $28.5 million in combined A and B round funding. Round A was led by BlueRun Ventures, followed by a Round B of investments led by CRV. In addition, Airobotics has received investments from Israel Chief Scientists and Silicon Valley’s UpWest Labs, as well as Noam Bardin, the CEO of Waze, and Richard Wooldridge, Google ATAP’s COO.
Airobotics delivers an automatic drone platform capable of executing a nearly infinite number of missions for its operators. By taking the drone pilot and operator out of the equation, Airobotics removes the most expensive and hard to find component of industrial drone operations. The system is comprised of three major components:
“Optimus” – a large, high capacity drone capable of flying 30-minute missions while carrying a one-kilogram mission specific payload.
- Precise Control: Optimus employs premium military grade avionics for flight performance and reliability.
- Payload and Battery Module: Optimus’s payloads and batteries are automatically exchanged with the robotic swapping mechanism, enabling a diversity of payloads and mission types.
- Real-Time Video Delivery: Optimus streams video from the drone, providing customers with real-time aerial insight into critical events and increasing their situational awareness.
“Airbase” – a completely automated base station from which the Optimus drone launches and lands on its own, without any human intervention.
- Custom Designed Robotic Arm: Designed for speed and reliability, the arm automatically swaps batteries and payloads once the drone returns to Airbase, minimizing downtime between flights.
- System Awareness: The Airbase provides status updates, anomaly detection, and alerts.
- Rugged, Industrial Grade Exterior: The Airbase is completely sealed, waterproof, durable, and corrosion resistant.
Airobotics Software – integrated, dynamic software that enables users to control and manage missions with one click.
- Mission Planning: Pre-designed, repeatable missions are dispatched on-demand or through the flight scheduling system.
- Data Processing: Harvested data passes through the processing pipeline, translating raw data forms into concise, actionable information.
- User Interface: Users interact with real-time and processed data to extract insights and improve decision-making processes.
The system’s swappable payload mechanism, together with its software, positions Optimus as a multi-tool drone capable of carrying various sensors and payloads.The dynamic, multi-purpose capability of the platform opens up the possibilities for entirely new solutions and missions that drones have never been used for before.
Airobotics is creating an open ecosystem for the developer community to provide a wide selection of tools to accomplish the vital tasks clients need for their businesses. Thanks to the system’s dynamic, swappable payload mechanism design, partners can create new payloads that integrate new sensors and other tools to the drone. The Airobotics’ software is both a complete operating system and an open platform, designed with scale in mind. Third parties can build and customize the payloads, along with software apps to support and manage various new missions.
For Airobotics’ investor Noam Bardin, former CEO of Waze and current Google Executive, the potential for Airobotics was evident from the beginning. “When I first met Ran and heard of his plan for Airobotics, I was immediately hooked. I called up my former investor in Waze, John Malloy, and said ‘this is the most exciting thing I have seen out of Israel since Waze, we have to get into it’. The combination of disruptive vision, engineering powerhouse from the Israeli Aeronautics industry, and hands-on experience running drones commercially makes Airobotics uniquely positioned to own the industrial drone space.”
Airobotics’ solution is best positioned to add value to complex industries such as Mining, Oil & Gas, Seaports, and other industrial facilities. These industry sectors benefit greatly from harnessing aerial insights, surveying and mapping, inspection, & security and emergency response applications, which are critical missions for industrial facilities that can directly impact the bottom line. Israel Chemicals (ICL), one of Airobotics’ first customers, ran beta trials to test, refine, and optimize the performance of the platform. Following the success of the beta program, ICL is continuing as a launch customer.
“I feel like this is the future,” said Yakov Kahlon, Senior Vice President of Operations at ICL. “The Airobotics platform has provided us with a highly effective tool that is cheaper economically and saves us time. With the platform, we can measure in one day what once took multiple days to measure.”
Led by Co-Founders Ran Krauss (CEO), and Meir Kliner (VP R&D), the entire Airobotics’ team of 70 people has extensive technological expertise as well as practical drone knowledge. Airobotics is Krauss’ third drone startup and he attributes the company’s accomplishments to the team. “The team is a true development powerhouse thanks to a unique fusion of aerospace hardware engineers, experienced commercial drone operators, and savvy mobile and application software experts. Airobotics has maintained an R&D focus towards development of the first truly automatic, robust drone system”.
For more information on Airobotics, the company profile is available here: Airobotics
