Robohub.org
 

Airware launches new system and gets funded


by
11 May 2015



share this:

The Airware Aerial Information Platform   Powering Drones for the Enterprise   YouTubeAirware received an undisclosed investment from Intel Capital, which now joins GE Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and a host of other prominent VCs in funding this autopilot startup. The startup received $40.5 million prior to the Intel investment.

airware-flight-boxesAirware also just announced the launch of its new generic autopilot, control station, and operating system for unmanned fixed-wing and multirotor aircraft. The two red Airware boxes comply with government and insurance requirements and will work with most drone builders’ devices. Airware hopes to become the standard for commercial drones by enabling customers to select drones and then mix and match hardware and software components to create unique devices for different jobs; they provide hardware, software, and cloud services that enable reliable and scalable enterprise drone operations.

With Airware focusing on their autopilot boxes and software systems, global drone makers and startups can quickly build safe and reliable drones, pop in the Airware boxes, and supply their special application-specific software. Thus drone manufacturers can tailor and focus their drones to any commercial application by connecting aircraft, sensors, payloads, and application-specific software, and not have to develop extensive piloting and navigation software themselves.

COLLISION AVOIDANCE AND TRANSPONDERS

Other companies are also developing autopilot systems. 3D Robotics offers their open source DroneKit; ArduPilot has an autopilot as does MicroPilot. A couple of defense contractors also have autopilot products and some are working on collision avoidance systems. Mitre and Aerialtronics are two such companies. But Airware’s proprietary software is more commercial-based and is already being field tested for mining surveys, precision agriculture, industrial inspections and forestry. And it is likely that they will add collision avoidance and a transponder once those systems get miniaturized and approved by the authorities.

“Airware provides the market with a full spectrum of products that bring real added value to our systems,” said Christian F. Viguie, chairman and CEO of Delta Drone, “they are building a powerful ecosystem that unites this growing market.”

General Electric announced that they will become Airware’s first large enterprise customer. Alex Tepper, managing director at GE Ventures said “We are currently developing drone solutions for our customers … drones have the ability to reduce downtime, increase safety, and provide more reliable operations for our customers. We believe that Airware is going to be a key partner in helping us deliver these solutions.”

There is much interest amongst the VC community to be invested in the emerging and exponentially growing drone industry as can be seen in these two articles:

Many research reports forecast exponential growth such as the one referenced above. Thus it is easy to foresee the drone industry splitting into maker and service provider similar to the robotics industry of today. In robotics, a few big firms make the basic industrial robot arms but thousands of independent global consultants, distributors, integrators and engineers add value through software and add-on devices. In the drone world the service provider segment is growing as fast as the maker group. Mapping, data mining, autopilot providers (with or separate from collision avoidance systems), data analysis, sensor manufacturers and aerial service companies are beginning to do today for the drone industry what integrators, distributors and consulting engineers have done for the robotics industry in the past.


https://youtu.be/mh9cYgWdKIY

https://youtu.be/q8o_R0WAwGE



tags: , , , ,


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 126 – Why are we building humanoid robots?

  20 Jun 2025
In this special live recording at Imperial College London, Claire chatted to Ben Russell, Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi, and Petar Kormushev about humanoid robotics.

Gearing up for RoboCupJunior: Interview with Ana Patrícia Magalhães

and   18 Jun 2025
We hear from the organiser of RoboCupJunior 2025 and find out how the preparations are going for the event.

Robot Talk Episode 125 – Chatting with robots, with Gabriel Skantze

  13 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gabriel Skantze from KTH Royal Institute of Technology about having natural face-to-face conversations with robots.

Preparing for kick-off at RoboCup2025: an interview with General Chair Marco Simões

and   12 Jun 2025
We caught up with Marco to find out what exciting events are in store at this year's RoboCup.

Interview with Amar Halilovic: Explainable AI for robotics

  10 Jun 2025
Find out about Amar's research investigating the generation of explanations for robot actions.

Robot Talk Episode 124 – Robots in the performing arts, with Amy LaViers

  06 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Amy LaViers from the Robotics, Automation, and Dance Lab about the creative relationship between humans and machines.

Robot Talk Episode 123 – Standardising robot programming, with Nick Thompson

  30 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Nick Thompson from BOW about software that makes robots easier to program.

Congratulations to the #AAMAS2025 best paper, best demo, and distinguished dissertation award winners

  29 May 2025
Find out who won the awards presented at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems last week.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence