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Airobotics launches autonomous industrial drones and announces $28.5 million in funding.
What does that mean?
It makes drones that fly, with very little human involvement, thanks to a series of breakthroughs in robotics, sensors, and navigation systems.
Keep in mind these aren’t things that just anyone will be able to buy. Who is in the market for them? Anyone who has a sizable plant that’s worth hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. Oil refineries. Mines. Factories, etc. If you have multiple people providing security for such, for instance, or have to inspect miles of pipes regularly for leaks, you might be in the target market for one of these.
Why is it significant? Because this isn’t a consumer drone retrofitted for continuous use, like previous companies have tried. No, this is a completely redesigned system from a highly-specialized shed that houses a robot that changes the payload under the drone to an advanced tracking system to monitor a series of autonomous drones, to the drones themselves, which are designed to be far more reliable than usual drones and that can carry a much heavier payload than, say, a DJI drone can carry.
“We wanted to build a drone that’s as reliable as a missile,” says Ran Kraus, CEO and cofounder. “The computer usually does it better than you,” he told me while explaining why an autonomous drone will be better for a variety of tasks than a human-flown one, or a human on the ground with a camera.
Today it isn’t just announcing this drone system, but $28.5 million in funding. Major investors include Noam Bardin, the CEO of Waze (acquired by Google), Richard Wooldridge, Google ATAP’s COO, and BlueRun Ventures.
When you visit this company in its Israel offices a short drive from Tel Aviv you’ll notice it’s a different kind of startup right away. First, from the outside you’d never expect a multi-million-dollar company inside. Second, when you walk around you see a ton of quotes in huge signs on the wall, with a few cages for testing out new drone designs, along with dozens of workers putting the touches on three different pieces of its business: a base station with a variety of communication radios and GPS sensors, a motorized airbase (looks like a large shed) that houses a commercial robot that grabs the drone, switches its battery and payload, er, sensors, and the drone itself which has blades much longer than your usual consumer-focused drone.
Airbotics’ drone is flying over Israel Chemicals (ICL), a global manufacturer of products based on specialty minerals. ICL produces a third of the world’s bromine, and is the sixth largest potash producer, at its 1,000-acre facility in Israel. The Airbase's door automatically opens and a Launchpad pushes the drone up. Then the drone fires its engines, flies off, and works for up to 30 minutes performing a variety of chores over its site, say providing live video feeds for security purposes or checking fence lines. Then comes back and automatically lands. All of this without humans involved, at about 9:53 into my interview you see one fly off out of its shed.
I wasn’t allowed to shoot it landing, because how it gets guided back into the AirBase is a trade secret the company doesn’t want its competitors to be able to see before being deployed in the field, but I saw it do it and it landed easily on a platform in the shed, which was quickly lowered inside and the AirBase doors automatically closed while the robot inside replaced the batteries with a freshly-charged one, and replaced the sensor payload from a 4K video camera to one that can do 3D mapping (a variety of sensor payloads are available).
At the push of a button the drone can be called home for a new payload. Say you own an oil refinery you can switch the video camera payload out for one that looks for gas leaks.
How much does this cost? A lot, but Kraus says it’s a lot cheaper than having a human who provides the same services. He knows, he had Israel’s first commercial license as a drone pilot. As part of the cost they work with a plant’s team to setup a series of automated tasks for the drones to complete on a regular basis.
Currently it has several payloads and sensors:
A DSLR high-res (4K) camera for mapping and surveying. Combo - RGB and IR video camera for security and inspection purposes. And a HD video camera (4k). Coming soon: LiDAR, Hyperspectral and Multispectral, and a gas sensing video camera as optional sensor payloads. All payloads are kept inside the AirBase and a robot arm inside changes the payloads as needed.
