Global Robotics Adoption: J.P. Morgan Predicts Significant Growth

Global Robotics Adoption: J.P. Morgan Predicts Significant Growth

Aug 25, 2026 | InDro Prowler, Industry 4.0, Industry News, Robots

By Scott Simmie

 

Barely a day goes by without a new video popping up on LinkedIn or YouTube, showing off the capabilities of a new humanoid or quadruped robot.

The videos can be spectacular: Robots performing seemingly-impossible jumps, scrambling up and down rugged inclines, performing martial arts – even folding laundry. Just a few days ago, two different Chinese-made robots beat Usain Bolt’s 100-metre world record. During one heat, a robot called “Lightning” clocked in at 9.39 seconds. Bolt’s 2009 record, which still stands (for humans), is 9.58 seconds. So at least two humanoids can run faster than the world’s fastest human.

The impression left by such feats is that we are truly entering a world where robots – particularly humanoids – will soon be commonplace in factories, homes, and even delivering goods on the streets.

But are we? We’ll dive into that topic today. Specifically, we’ll look at predictions for the growth of robotic adoption in the coming years.

First, though, a look at that incredible run by Lightning, built by Chinese phone manufacturer Honor for a robotic games competition.

NOT SO FAST

 

Lightning is pretty impressive. But that speed doesn’t mean humanoids are ready to be deployed at scale.

Currently, companies interested in humanoids are generally trying them out on a one-off basis or using them for R&D. That means testing their capabilities, usually in a factory setting, with a specific task. Usually those tasks require significant training in simulation and additional coding before they can be deployed. And even then, no humanoids we’ve seen can perform with anything like the speed and intuition of a human being (though we will give a medal to Lightning for that 100m run).

Humans are, obviously, incredibly complex. We make our own calculations, at lightning speed, every single time we reach for an object and move it. Our own “sensors” – ranging from our eyes and ears to the nerves in our fingertips, muscles etc. – provide constant feedback as we grasp or manipulate an object. We can also take verbal directions and process them quickly. We can collaborate with a co-worker simply by asking them for some extra help. And we can hear or see unanticipated events and react quickly.

Humanoids will reach those capabilities someday (and we have one client who plans to deploy one for simple tasks in a radioactive environment). But there’s still a ways to go before they reach their full potential.

In the meantime, many other types of robots prove daily they can carry out useful tasks. Robotic arms can pick-and-place even heavy objects and never get tired. Autonomous Mobile Robots can move heavy loads across a factory floor. Quadrupeds like InDro Prowler can carry out inspection or security patrols (some are even deployed in a museum to keep watch after-hours). The Cypher Robotics Captis system can count inventory in massive warehouses.

But such robots are still far from ubiquitous. The real wave, the shift toward robots becoming a regular part of the scene in the workplace – and eventually in our lives – is still many years off.

 

PREDICTIONS

 

It’s easy to make predictions, and there are many of them floating around when it comes to robotics. One we find particularly well-researched was published August 16 of 2026 by J.P. Morgan, a global leader in investment banking services. While it’s bullish on robotics in general, it does offer some cautionary notes.

“In our view, the gap between a viral demo reel and a truly useful general-purpose robot remains quite wide—something investors need to appreciate,” reads this report. “The challenge lies in getting humanoids to perform a wide range of tasks safely, reliably and autonomously in an unpredictable world.”

Remember how we mentioned that humans make countless calculations per second? J.P Morgan cites research saying that even AI-powered robots capable of 2,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS) don’t come close to human capabilities.

“…All that brain power and processing ability only produces roughly 10% of what an average adult human brain could do – not enough yet to replace generalised human labor,” it states.

But it will someday get there – reaching a point where humanoids can not only perform alongside humans in unpredictable environments, but will be able to receive and understand verbal instructions via AI Large Language Models.

And the global predictions overall? J.P. Morgan suggests a major shift will come between now and 2035, growing from $100B US annual sales in 2025 to $2.5 trillion US by 2035. That’s an average annual growth rate of 35-40 per cent. It suggests autonomous vehicles (including cars, robotaxis etc.) sales could reach $750B US by 2035, or a little over one-third of that $2.5 trillion predicted total. The report does not separate out robotic arms, which have become a mainstay in many large-scale factories, particularly in the automotive sector.

We should also add J.P. Morgan suggests that $2.5 trillion may well be a conservative estimate. Those more bullish on the future predict the global spend could reach $8 trillion US by 2035. The report also suggests that China is particularly well-positioned, with three of the world’s largest humanoid manufacturers, as well as highly integrated supply chains.

As for InDro, we foresee a continual progression – which includes overcoming some hurdles along the way. We particularly like this video, created by Toronto’s Dr. Albert Chen, who has an incredibly impressive background in Engineering, product development and startups:

INDRO’S TAKE

 

We’re not surprised by the numbers suggested by J.P. Morgan’s analyst. Our own sales have increased significantly since we entered the ground robotics world. We are seeing strong demand for both R&D platforms – which ultimately lead to innovations that boost the industry – plus our own robots. We are also currently working on our most ambitious project to date: Turning the world’s longest-range hybrid vehicle (7,000km on a single tank of diesel) into a robot.

“InDro has designed and built robots for some of the largest technology companies in the world and is ideally positioned for the increase in global demand,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “When you add in Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy and its emphasis on dual-purpose technology solutions, we – along with many others in this sector – are ready for the future.”

Area X.O highlights defence-related drone and robotics testing site

Area X.O highlights defence-related drone and robotics testing site

Aug 12, 2026 | Defence, Defence Industrial Strategy, InDro News, InDro Solutions, Industry News, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

Area X.O has put the spotlight on its third facility with a clear emphasis on defence-related drone and robotics testing – and it’s very much related to Canada’s new Defence Industrial Strategy.

Area X.O Killaloe is located at an airport in the Ottawa Valley, and it held a defence-capabilities demonstration called RED COBALT Uncrewed Systems Accelerator 2026 this week. It was heavily attended by senior officials from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the Department of National Defence, and Canadian Joint Forces Command. The Honourable David McGuinty, Minister of Defence, was also in attendance.

About 20 companies, nearly all of them Canadian-owned, were invited to display and demonstrate technologies that will likely one day play a role in Canada’s defence. Indro Robotics was one of those companies. It is the third Area X.O site, with the first and largest the well-known technology hub and NATO DIANA Test Centre in Ottawa (where InDro has its R&D headquarters).

“This is how we help companies grow faster. Strengthen Canada’s sovereign capabilities. Create high-value jobs. Attract investment. And build a stronger, more resilient economy,” announced Sonya Shorey, President and CEO of Invest Ottawa and Area X.O in this post. Invest Ottawa owns and operates all Area X.O facilities.

“This work directly supports Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy and our evolving strategy for Canada’s Capital Region, Ottawa and Gatineau together, as a global defence innovation hub serving our country, Forces and Allies,” she added.

The August 11/12 gathering provided an opportunity for a cross-section of the Canadian military to observe, even operate, multiple types of drones, counter-UAS systems, ground robotics, and more. The location will allow for testing larger and more complex drone systems and robotics. And, unlike the original Area X.O, is not located near a major airport.

Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, released in February of this year, is the country’s response to a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape – and commits more than half a trillion dollars between now and 2035. Those funds have already started to flow: In July, Ottawa announced it would build a $30M military drone R&D facility in Mirabel, Quebec.

A significant portion of the DIS budget has been set aside to help accelerate Canadian-built and owned innovations – and reduce the reliance on traditional US military primes. The Ukraine conflict and even the recent US war with Iran have forever changed warfare with the heavy use of drones and other robotics on the battlefield.

“If you look at what’s happening in Ukraine, their uncrewed systems — the [updates to] coding that goes into it happen on a daily basis,” Lt.-Gen. Darcy Molstad, who heads the military’s Joint Forces Command, told CBC News.

“…This is the kind of partnerships that we have to establish.”

Below: A portion of Sonya Shorey’s post

Sonya Shorey Killaloe

INDRO AND DUAL-PURPOSE

 

Many of the products InDro manufactures have dual-purpose capabilities, meaning they can be used for commercial/industrial applications, as well as for defensive purposes. Our drones and robots, for example, are involved in a partnership with Montreal software firm CHAAC Technologies to autonomously find, map – and potentially neutralise – the pernicious PFM-1 landmine. It’s a small, air-dropped butterfly-shaped device that is intended to maim. Children often make the tragic mistake of thinking they are toys.

Technology can prove tremendously helpful for those kinds of use-cases – as well as many other defence and sovereignty-related purposes. InDro Vice-President Peter King and Law Enforcement Consultant Brian Fentiman represented InDro at the event, showing two major new innovations we are developing.

The first is Talos, the world’s longest-range vehicle. The rugged hybrid uses a combination of batteries and a highly efficient diesel generator to operate up to 7,000 km on a single, 454-litre tank of fuel. Originally developed to be driven by a human operator, InDro is in the process of turning this vehicle into a remotely tele-operated (and autonomous) robot. The Talos uses standard NATO-compliant mounting systems, and can be rapidly transformed for any use-case, from surveillance and combat in hostile environments through to transporting wounded combatants or getting medical supplies into a disaster zone.

We were also providing a glimpse of technology related to our new, long-range Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) drone. It can carry multiple sensors plus an additional payload and fly in weather conditions that would ground conventional aircraft. It’s also a hybrid fixed-wing design, meaning it’s capable of extraordinarily long missions.

Below: A look at the front end of Talos (R), the vehicle InDro is transforming into the world’s longest-range ground robot.

 

Talos

INDRO’S TAKE

 

We were pleased to see the unveiling of the new facility – and to be in the company of so many Canadian companies who are pushing the envelope of technology and defence. The event was a clear indicator of the emphasis the Federal Government is putting on the DIS, and the speed at which it hopes to advance the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces with made-in-Canada solutions.

“It is indeed a changing world, and Canada is investing to keep pace with that change,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “We congratulate Invest Ottawa and Area X.O and welcome the opportunities afforded by this facility. InDro is proud to be working on dual-use technologies we feel will be of benefit to the country, and to those who serve it.”

We look forward to testing our new innovations at the site, and will update you when that happens.

 

The InDro Evolution, Part II: Ground robotics and software

The InDro Evolution, Part II: Ground robotics and software

Aug 10, 2026 | InDro Solutions, Industry News, Innovation, Philip Reece, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

You can divide the evolution of Indro Robotics into two phases. The first focused heavily on drones, drone technology, innovative use-cases, and multiple Canadian and industry “firsts.” We wrote about that first stage, which spans 2014 to 2019, here.

We’ll now look at what’s happened since then. Specifically, the addition of ground robotics in addition to our UAV work. And once again, it’s a story filled with milestones.

Our broader robotics era really begins in 2019, when we sent a single person to work at Invest Ottawa’s Area X.O. Some of the big players, companies like Nokia and Blackberry QNX, already had offices there. But InDro came in lean, sharing office space with Nokia while working closely with the company on Area X.O’s Mobile Command Centre. That large vehicle uses a telescoping antenna to create a private cellular network, allowing secure Command and Control of drone (or ground robotics) missions in areas without networks.

Reece could see the potential of Area X.O as a full R&D headquarters: A private facility with roads dedicated to autonomous vehicles meant engineers could literally walk out the door and test new robots or drones. And so, on March 1st of 2021, InDro formally opened in its own space at Area X.O.

A key early hire was Peter King, who had broad industry expertise in successful drone and ground robotics companies. King (now VP at InDro and Founder and CEO of Cypher Robotics) assisted Reece in building the team at Area X.O.

“When the opportunity came to take lab space at Area X.O and become part of the drone and robot testing grounds, we jumped at the chance,” Philip Reece told BetaKit at the time. “We have already supplemented our team with several very talented engineers, and I am sure we will be adding more in the near future.”

That, it turns out, would be an understatement.

Below: An InDro employee at Area X.O’s ops centre soon after our move. Teleoperated drone and robotics missions can be controlled and monitored from this room. Image two: By 2023, InDro had a rapidly growing team at Area X.O

InDro Robotics

 THE ADDITION OF GROUND ROBOTICS

 

Before we get to ground robotics and autonomy, we should mention that our work on drones never slowed down. We continued to develop new models for extended range and specialised payloads, while advancing partnerships and remote operations using public and private 5G networks. We flew complex missions for clients in Saudi Arabia, built systems for a huge company in South America, and carried out multiple research initiatives in conjunction with universities like UBC and companies like Rogers and Ericsson. We hired aviation regulatory expert and crewed flight instructor Kate Klassen (who has trained more than 10,000 drone pilots online), as well as Dr. Eric Saczuk, a remote imaging expert who also leads the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s RPAS Hub and has flown some of the most complex drone missions imaginable.

But we were also pursuing a parallel pathway: Ground robotics. We knew we could leverage our drone expertise in remote teleoperation, sensor integration and custom builds. So it was really more of a transition of those skills onto ground robotic platforms, along with the steady hiring of exceptionally good engineers from multiple disciplines. For those ground platforms, we secured a distribution deal with AgileX, China’s leading multi-platform robotics company and Unitree. We were soon building custom robots for industrial, academic and R&D clients – and developing our own new proprietary products we could sell (many of which you can find on our InDro Store).

On the latter front, we initially identified remote asset inspection/surveillance and last-mile delivery as emerging markets. We designed and built our first Sentinel inspection robot (now in its third iteration), and our first ground delivery robot, ROLL-E. It was deployed in partnership with a London Drugs location in Victoria for curbside pickup during the COVID pandemic.

With a motto of Invent, Enhance, Deploy, we took on increasingly complex builds, including a multi-robot contract with one of the planet’s largest technology companies. We also designed what would become one of our signature products, InDro Commander.

It’s a platform-agnostic EDGE device that holds the ROS2 libraries and allows for the seamless integration of new sensors by simply plugging them into that powerful box. It also contains the secure, front-end software (InDro Controller) that allows missions to be intuitively planned, executed and monitored. Commander quickly became popular with universities and R&D companies who wanted to rapidly integrate their own robots and quickly proceed to research. We also developed our popular InDro Autonomy software stack.

Below: The InDro Commander module with the InDro Autonomy Stack onboard AgileX platforms. Video: Head of R&D Sales Luke Corbeth highlighting an InDro-modified Unitree humanoid robot at Area X.O’s annual GCXpo event. You’ll notice that humanoid has a “backpack.” That device is InDro Commander (with InDro Controller onboard) in a different form factor. We’ve also modified the humanoid to enable not only remote teleoperation, but VR teleoperation using handsets and a 4K resolution headset

Robot development kit

Industry 4.0 and dual-purpose innovations

 

While continuing custom builds for researchers and industrial clients, InDro has pushed the envelope substantially over the past few years. Specifically, we’ve been developing products for the world of Industry 4.0, where automated and interconnected devices result in vast efficiencies in settings ranging from warehouses to factories to long-range ground and aerial data acquisition and delivery.

Some of the many highlights include:

  • InDro Cortex, a vastly smaller version of InDro Commander, along with more powerful and intuitive iterations of InDro Controller. We’ve also integrated these into a VR humanoid.
  • Developing and deploying InDro Prowler, an exceedingly powerful wheeled quadruped for surveillance and security inspection that sets a new standard for value
  • Serving as technology incubator for Cypher Robotics, helping to develop a tethered drone/AMR system for cycle counting in large warehouses

Another absolutely key accelerator for InDro over the past few years was the launch and subsequent expansion of InDro Forge, our custom fabrication and integration facility.

It houses a full suite of tools for professional fabrication including CNC, water jet table, PCB design – and a plethora of specialized 3D printers that include bigrep ONE, capable of printing objects up to one cubic metre in size (along with all the requisite expertise). We build products for clients there, and integrate our own robots at the site, complete with custom metal and composite work. Forge has been scaling since we began, and has now evolved into a small and growing factory.

 

OUR NEXT BIG THING(S)

 

We can’t provide too many details yet, but we are currently hard at work on three highly ambitious projects. We are going to roboticize the world’s longest-range vehicle – a diesel-electric hybrid capable of 7,000km on a single tank of fuel. It has multiple use-cases, including disaster response in areas with damaged infrastructure, data acquisition and surveillance for sovereignty purposes, wildlife monitoring and protection – and much more. We are also hard at work on Obsidian, a smaller AWD hybrid for multiple use-cases in inhospitable terrain.

We are, at the same time, extensively modifying a very large, long-range drone for highly specialised missions. It can carry both sensors and other payload, and is capable of flying in extreme conditions that would ground most traditional aircraft. More on that down the road.

Below: The multi-purpose, 7,000km vehicle we’re transforming into a robot, followed by the largest drone we’ve yet to work with. InDro Founder/CEO Philip Reece is second from left in the drone photo

Fering
Terrain Drone

INDRO’S TAKE

 

So many milestones, so little time. We didn’t even mention our latest research robot, Axiom. But it’s a cost breakthrough for those doing Physical AI R&D involving humanoids, and its extendible torso allows researchers to position the robot’s arms for high reach, low reach, and everything in between.

There’s a reason we mention Axiom here, one of our most budget-friendly robots. In fact, we’ll drop a picture of it in a second. That’s because, despite the major projects we’ve carried out and are currently working on, InDro still maintains its roots: Inventing, building and testing highly useful tools that help researchers develop algorithms and use-cases that elevate the entire industry.

“It has been quite a journey so far, and an immensely satisfying one,” says InDro’s Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “From a single employee at Area X.O back in 2019, we have scaled significantly, taking on ever-more complex projects for major clients and government departments, while still providing new and affordable innovations for those in the academic and R&D worlds.

“A broader vision for InDro has helped guide the way. But none of this would have been possible without a highly dedicated and skilled team – people who have yet to encounter a problem they aren’t willing and eager to solve. We have done our best to carve a clear, ethical and forward-looking path. So from here, it’s onward: We will continue to invent, enhance, deploy – and scale.”

Below: Axiom. Highly functional, with a very low cost. We’ve included Robotics Hardware Engineering Intern Justin Luo both for scale, and because he put in a lot of hard work on this project

The InDro Evolution, Part One: Drones

The InDro Evolution, Part One: Drones

Aug 6, 2026 | InDro News, Industry News, Innovation, Philip Reece, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

It’s been quite a journey.

Since the founding of InDro Robotics by Philip Reece back in 2014, the company has followed a steady trajectory of innovation and growth, marked by multiple milestones and a number of industry “firsts.” We thought, 12 years on, it was worth looking back on that path.

The company was initially formed after CEO Reece saw an opportunity. At the time, he owned Salt Spring Air, a small floatplane company later acquired by the Harbour Air Group. A regular client would hire one of his aircraft annually for aerial data acquisition – but this year declined, saying he was going to use a drone instead. Reece began researching drone technology and quickly identified this would be a growth market where R&D could play a role – both in enabling new technologies and new use-case scenarios. 

“The economic benefits of a UAS versus traditional aircraft were immediately apparent,” he recalls. “And it was also clear there were multiple use-cases where a drone would be able to do things a crewed aircraft could not.”

And so InDro – short for Industrial Drones – was born. It was, initially, a startup operation based out of Salt Spring Island. Reece, along with a few dedicated staff, began building and testing drones (and also some uncrewed surface vehicles for aquatic work). Reece, a serial entrepreneur, had a knack for identifying novel use-cases.

“In 2014, in our very first year, we demonstrated that an Automated External Defibrillator could be delivered by drone, potentially saving lives,” he says. 

For InDro, that trial marked the beginning of a strong and steady voyage.

Above: Advanced urban wind tunnel research drone on a mission with the NRC. Below: A 2014 video (which now shows its age) where InDro demonstrated the potential for AED delivery by drone. Image: InDro Founder/CEO Philip Reece at Area X.O.

Philip Reece Area X.O

PROGRESS, COLLABORATION, MILESTONES

 

In those early days, regulators were exceedingly cautious, even fearful, of this new technology. There was legitimate concern a drone might collide with another aircraft, or cause injury to persons or property on the ground. You couldn’t simply put a drone up in the air regardless of the purpose – you needed a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) for each and every flight. It was a time-consuming process.

But Reece, a licensed pilot himself, could see the rationale and began building trust with contacts at Transport Canada. InDro also started working with a broad selection of First Responders – fire, police, Search & Rescue and more – training them how to safely use these new tools. At one of the biggest downtown fires in Victoria’s history, the fire department deployed an InDro-supplied drone with a FLIR thermal camera. It allowed the department to see through thick smoke to more strategically direct suppression efforts.

While Visual Line of Sight flights (with an SFOC) could accomplish many tasks, Reece and others in the industry knew that BVLOS flights would open up an entire new world of use-cases. In 2016, in coordination with Transport Canada and First Responders, InDro flew a BVLOS mission to assist with a major forest fire. That was within restricted airspace and a special case. But the company did fly Canada’s first BVLOS mission outside of a test range in 2017.

We also flew regularly from a moving vehicle to document the beauty and diversity of this country during an 11,000 km overland trip through Canada in the Explorer 150 project – a partnership with Maclean’s magazine, Duracell and Rogers, and one of many high-profile events to mark Canada’s 150th birthday. We even captured video of polar and grizzly bears during that trip.

Below: Two members of the Explorer 150 team

Duracell Explorer 150

OTHER FIRSTS

 

There are many. Highlights include:

  • The first “blanket” SFOC for Canada-wide flights, and the first license granted by the Canadian Transportation Agency to use drones as a means of cargo delivery
  • The first flight in Canada using 5G for Command and Control (2021)
  • The first TC BVLOS delivery of simulated blood products between hospitals (2018) and the first delivery of pharmaceutical products (2019) with privacy and other approvals. Those trials, along with further research work transporting AEDs, proved that aerial delivery was faster than emergency ground transport

InDro rapidly developed a reputation not only as a serious player in this emerging industry, but a collaborative one. In 2018, Reece worked closely with regulators and Canada Post to arrange for a demonstration of drone technology and BVLOS flights from the-then Salt Spring Island headquarters. He invited multiple companies – including AVSS, ParaZero Technologies, Avidrone Aerospace, SkyX, DJI and Iris Automation (since acquired by uAvionix) to highlight their own solutions, all observed by Transport Canada and NAV CANADA officials, as well as senior Canada Post management. Those invitations made that event  about elevating the industry, not InDro.

It was that kind of work that garnered InDro Robotics and Reece the prestigious Organisational Award from Unmanned Systems Canada (now the Aerial Evolution Association of Canada) in 2020. The award recognises a company that has made an outstanding contributions to the industry-at-large.

Below: Two use-cases we’re particularly proud of: During the peak of the COVID pandemic, InDro flew BVLOS flights for an island-based First Nations community, shuttling COVID test kits and swabs needing analysis back and forth to the mainland. We earlier flew Canada’s first BVLOS deliveries of prescription medications in a fully sanctioned trial

INDRO’S TAKE

Other firsts include working with telecoms like Rogers to carry out Canada’s first flight over 5G. We developed InDro Pilot, then InDro Controller, as a UI for command and control. We’ve collaborated with Federal departments like the National Research Council, detected landmines in partnership with Montreal’s CHAAC technologies for the Department of National Defence, and built multiple generations of R&D drones that run on the open-source ROS2. We remain the key technology provider for the ongoing Drone Detection System at YOW, which has gathered years worth of data shared with Transport Canada, NAV CANADA, the RCMP and other airport authorities. (The system was even used to ensure the airspace was free of drones for former US President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa.)

We’ve also helped incubate other companies, including Cypher Robotics, which has a tethered drone attached to an autonomous mobile robot that counts warehouse inventory with 99-plus per cent accuracy. Plus many projects for international clients where we are bound by NDA.

This story could be much longer – there’s a lot we’ve skipped, including the launch of the FLYY online drone training portal – but you get the drift: InDro has continuously pushed the envelope with drone technology and use-cases, collaborating whenever possible while developing custom RPAS solutions for global clients.

“In retrospect, I’m incredibly grateful that client decided to not hire a Salt Spring Air floatplane back in 2014,” says Reece. “That was where all this started, and I could not have envisioned back then how this path would unfold. Our engineering staff has grown immensely since the early days, and we’re now innovating with long-range, hybrid aircraft suitable for deliveries and reconnaissance in Arctic conditions.”

And one more very important thing before we wrap:

“None of this would have been possible without a dedicated engineering team and the support from multiple Federal and provincial programs that believed in us. As a company we are grateful for that trust – and look forward to what’s next.”

Part II of this series is coming soon: InDro and ground robotics.

InDro’s hybrid drone and ground robot: Long-range, all-weather solutions

InDro’s hybrid drone and ground robot: Long-range, all-weather solutions

Jul 29, 2026 | Defence, Drone Delivery, InDro Autonomy, InDro News, Innovation, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

Picture this: A medical crisis in a remote or isolated community. Specifically, a patient needs a critical medication quickly.

There’s no pharmacy in the small town, nor is there an airstrip. A medical helicopter is unavailable. But without this medication, the patient might die. This community does have a road leading to the wider world (not all do), but it’s an eight-hour drive to the nearest city that has the required drug – then another eight hours back.

The obvious solution, to those in this field, is a drone. But here, too, there are problems. The range is beyond the reach of most RPAS. And the weather at both ends is inhospitable to most drones; high winds and sub-zero temperatures.

This is a problem – and a big one.

That’s why InDro has been working on a solution. We’re not quite ready to take the wraps off it yet, which is why you’re looking at a render in the image above. (The render, in fact, doesn’t even look close to what we’re working on – it’s a completely different body design.)

But what we’re working on is very real. And we will give you some details.

Below: The isolated community of Akulivik in Nunavik, northern Quebec. Getting critical supplies to remote communities can be challenging, particularly in hostile weather. Image by Couch, licensed under Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Remote community

SOME (BUT NOT ALL) DETAILS

 

The RPAS we’re working with on, like the render that opened this story, is a catapult launch. In fact, we’re building the catapult right now. But that’s about the only thing in common with the image. The body shape is significantly different, and built for far greater efficiency and far harsher conditions. But the other key in this project is range.

Battery power alone won’t cut it; the energy density won’t sustain truly extended BVLOS flights. We considered fuel-only, but the ranges we’re aiming for would require significant fuel, noise and emissions. And so we’ve settled on an electric hybrid.

A small fuel-powered generator will keep the onboard batteries charged, extending our range and reducing the carbon footprint. This RPAS has been engineered to fly many hundreds of kilometres. The body is designed for carrying a heavy payload in even highly demanding weather scenarios. It can fly in sub-zero Arctic conditions, scorching deserts, and even handle the volatile winds in mountain ranges. The catapult launch also minimises the energy required for a traditional ground takeoff.

While there’s clearly demand for delivering critical supplies, the heavy-lift capacity means this drone can also carry an array of sensors (including, of course, a Detect-And-Avoid system). That puts it firmly in the dual-use category, whether for remote communities, industrial tasks or sovereignty/defence applications. We believe it will fill a crucial gap when it comes to long-range BVLOS, particularly in demanding conditions – and look forward to a complete unveil in the future.

 

NOT JUST AIR

 

We are also working on a rugged, long-range ground robot that can be tele-operated over long distances. The mechanics for drive-by-wire have already been installed and we’ve been testing this in a battery-only configuration at our Area X.O R&D headquarters.

Because we want to extend the range significantly, a lightweight, low-displacement generator vastly increases range while keeping the propulsion electric-only and minimising carbon footprint.

This particular ground robot is much larger than anything we’ve publicly revealed (though we have built some pretty big ground robots for high-profile technology clients). The greater size, rugged suspension, cargo capacity and long range mean it will be useful for a broad range of use-cases. Yes, it can deliver a significant quantity of supplies – whether to a community, wildfire crews, disaster zones or even front-line troops. It can handle exceedingly rugged terrain, meaning even if infrastructure is heavily damaged (or non-existent), it will reach its destination. It can even be configured to carry an injured human being out of a remote or dangerous location.

We call this new product Obsidian. The photo below was taken in early April of 2026, and significant work has taken place since then.

Obsidian Build April 2026

INDRO’S TAKE

 

Both of these hybrid projects represent significant advances in aerial and ground robotics for InDro. By significantly extending range and ruggedness, Obsidian and the forthcoming drone open up a far broader array of humanitarian and defence-related use-cases.

“Engineering is all about solving problems,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “We believe this truly efficient, long-range and heavy-lift drone will fill a critical void in getting important supplies to remote and isolated communities, gathering data over long distances and in inclement weather, and also find a role in defence and sovereignty applications. We are equally excited about the capabilities of the hybrid ground robot.”

We look forward to fully unveiling these remarkable products when complete. Stay tuned.