Israel’s Airobotics specializes in fully autonomous drones equipped with AI-driven data analytics for real-time surveillance, mapping, and disaster response. Its drones are tailored for smart city planning, industrial monitoring, and public safety operations, offering rapid aerial data collection and actionable insights for decision-makers. Its customers include the defense, semiconductor manufacturing and public sector. It is currently selling in Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.
“We build, operate and help clients implement autonomous drone infrastructure that comes into play in smart cities in order to provide aerial services to residents, businesses, factories and the public sector” says Yotam Guggenheim, Airobotic’s vice-president of corporate development. “Think of us as a new type of utility,” he says. In the future companies are likely to prioritize aerial infrastructure in their evaluation of where to locate business operations or factories, he says.
“Just like the Internet is now considered a part of critical infrastructure we believe that going forward aerial infrastructure for transportation and data collection will be critical,” he says. “We would like to be the first ones to deploy this utility around the world.”
Airobotics is one of 10 startups participating in DRISHTI, short for Dual Use Robust India Israel High Tech Innovation, a new program launched by Israel’s Defense Research and Development Directorate (DDR&D) and T-Hub, India’s largest startup accelerator to help dual use tech companies enter the India market. DRISHTI is supported by three key pillars: a Center of Excellence in Hyderabad the Motwani Jadeja Foundation is setting up at T-Hub to enable cross-border partnerships and provide market entry support for Israeli startups in India; an India Market Access Program (IMAP) organized by T-Hub to equip startups with a go-to-market strategy and facilitate business connections; and high-profile networking events organized by the Foundation to bring together startups, industry leaders, and delegations from both nations.
Airobotics’ technology combines expertise in aerospace hardware design, robust electronic systems, cutting edge software engineering, and years of experience in commercial drone operations across a variety of environments, says Guggenheim. One of Airobotics’ products, Optimus Systems, consists of three main components: a box, the drone within, and the command center that allows the operator to launch missions. Once the box deployed it stays operational as an infrastructure, explained Guggenheim. “The process we enable is to schedule or prepare 24/7 missions within an 80 square mile area around that box,” he says. A client might require mapping of a construction site to view the progress and then overlay the data on a digital twin. When the drone finishes mapping it returns to the station, uploads a new battery and payload, and then goes on to the next mission, which might be perimeter inspection of a manufacturing facility. Other use cases might include Infrastructure inspection of roads, bridges, powerlines or sidewalks as well as thermal inspection to prevent overheating of pipelines. One system can handle up to nine different payloads and 10 batteries, providing varied automated aerial missions 24/7 without human intervention.
Public sector applications include emergency services. “A drone can get to a crime scene or accident before a human and broadcast directly back to a police command center,” says Guggenheim. The drones also have delivery capability so they can deliver defibrillators to remote areas such as national parks where there is no immediate availability of medical services, he says.
The drones and underlying infrastructure can be used for border protection and protection of critical infrastructure such as nuclear plants and military bases.
Defense is also a key area for Airobotics. The Iron Dome, Israel’s famous defense system, is very effective in protecting Israel from missiles and rockets but today a drone that costs a few hundred dollars can do major damage. Airobotics has created a product called the Iron Drone which can intercept hostile drones and then, once it downs them, go back to the home station and be reused, making it financially viable, Guggenheim says.
Established in 2014, the company is wholly owned by U.S.-based Ondas Holdings and traded on NASDAQ. It has raised over $100 million in funding to date.
Competitors include Chinese drone maker DJI, which provides drone solutions for agriculture, energy, public safety, survey, mapping, and more. Like Airobotics, DJI provides a moveable box that allows for the recharging of drones. Drone startups like the U.S.’s Skydeo, offer autonomous drones that capture data and can be used for emergency response but Airobotics is the first to provide permanent aerial infrastructure, with robotic battery and payload swapping features says Guggenheim.
Another key differentiator is that Airobotics has completed a type certification process with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which, says Guggenheim, “validates the safety of the aircraft and gives us a global stamp of approval.
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