Israeli drone company Airobotics opened its North American headquarters this week in Scottsdale, Arizona, to support its Americas operations and customer BHP, the world’s largest mining company. Airobotics said it plans to expand its Scottsdale team to 80 employees by the end of 2019 and transition the team to its global headquarters.
“We expect Airobotics to be a major player as the AZSkyTech Program continues to make great strides in deployment and usage of UAS,” said Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Ran Krauss, CEO and co-founder of Airobotics, said the company plans to operate its aircraft beyond visual line of sight in the U.S. in support of commercial customers.
Airobotics was the first company to be granted authorization to fly fully automated pilotless drones and is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel. It has raised $71 million to date and currently employs 200. The company’s industrial quadcopter aircraft have robotic arms, geo-fencing, and emergency recovery parachutes.
Israeli automated drone company Airobotics recently established its North American headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, from where it will run all North, South, and Central America operations. With global headquarters in Tel Aviv and operations in five countries covering four continents, Airobotics co-founder and CEO Ran Krauss said one of the key elements in the decision to locate the North American headquarters in Arizona was a friendly political environment toward unmanned aerial vehicles/systems (UAV/UAS).
“When deciding where to launch our first U.S. office, Arizona was the top choice as it has a strong mining industry, great weather conditions for drone testing, and potential partners we’re excited to work with,” Ran said. “The state and local governments are very supportive of autonomous and aviation technologies and the UAV industry specifically, aligning with our plans to operate UAVs Beyond Visual Line of Sight [BVLOS] in the U.S.”
While Arizona has not been granted any FAA UAS Test or Integration Pilot Program sites, the state hosts two large military UAS test sites—Fort Huachuca with the world’s largest UAS training center (having trained more than 12,000 military personnel in UAS to date), and the Yuma Proving Ground with six airfields available for UAS operations—and the civilian UAS Integration Pilot Program called AZSkyTech, established by the Arizona Commerce Authority this year.
“We expect Airobotics to be a major player as the AZSkyTech Program continues to make great strides in deployment and usage of UAS,” said Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. “We welcome Airobotics to Arizona and look forward to working with the company on the further development of this cutting-edge technology.”
Founded in Tel Aviv in 2014, Airobotics claims to be the first company worldwide to be certified to fly fully autonomous pilotless drones in BVLOS conditions, receiving such certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel in March 2017. Airobotics’s Optimus quadcopter autonomously operates from a self-contained industrial docking station called the Airbase, which contains programming servers, a robotic arm for swapping batteries and payloads, and sliding roof for launch and recovery. Proprietary Airobotics software allows users to “control and manage missions with one click” and analyze data in a user-friendly dashboard.
Optimus currently has a range of three kilometers from the docking station and 25-minute maximum duration of flight, but company sources say the next version of the drone will be capable of flights up to 40 minutes. Payloads include various photographic, mapping, video and thermal imaging equipment.
Airobotics currently conducts automated UAS operations, mostly in the mining industry, in Israel, Australia, New Caledonia (a territory of France), and Chile. The company’s U.S. launch customer is an Arizona mine operated by global mineral resources firm BHP. While drone flights at the BHP mine are monitored from the Scottsdale facility, a visual observer remains on site to comply with the company’s FAA Part 107.29 waiver, which only waives daylight operation.
“The observer can only initiate certain safety sequences, such as ‘return to home’ or ‘deploy parachute,’” said Airobotics general manager Matan Yemini. “Otherwise the entire flight is conducted from pre-programmed sequences…the observer is hands-off.”
Airobotics has applied for a BVLOS waiver from the FAA, which it expects to receive by year-end. Still considered a tech startup, Airobotics has raised $71 million to date and currently employs 200. The company plans to move its global headquarters to Scottsdale in 2019, expanding its team in the U.S. to 80 employees by the end of next year.