Canadian delegation sees the coming future of Air Taxis and Advanced Air Mobility

Canadian delegation sees the coming future of Air Taxis and Advanced Air Mobility

Jan 30, 2025 | Advanced Air Mobility, CAAM, Industry News, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

It’s one thing to hear all the buzz about Advanced Air Mobility. It’s quite something else to see it.

A Canadian delegation representing some 40 organisations (including private companies, academia, airports, Transport Canada, NAV Canada and the National Research Council) is currently in the midst of a trade mission to California, visiting leaders in the AAM space. The trade mission was organised by Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) – the organization that speaks with a unified voice on behalf of the emerging industry in Canada.

The coming world of Advanced Air Mobility will mark a huge inflection point in the world of aviation, especially in urban centres. Sustainable and transformational aircraft that use batteries or hydrogen as a fuel source will transport people and critical supplies over large urban areas and to nearby regions that are currently underserved by traditional aviation. They takeoff and land vertically, meaning they don’t require runways. Most designs transition to forward flight and incorporate a fixed wing for greater efficiency and range. Use-cases could include transporting patients, organs and medicines between hospitals, or delivering critical supplies in a disaster scenario.

But perhaps the biggest immediate market – and one you’ve undoubtedly heard of – is for these vehicles to serve as air taxis. Let’s say you’re downtown in a big congested city like New York, LA or Toronto. You need to get to the airport, but don’t want to spend 60-90 minutes in traffic. Three large companies in California – Joby Aviation Inc., Archer Aviation, and Wisk are leading the industry. And they are laser-focussed on this particular market sector.

All three envision a scenario similar to this in your future: Using an app on your phone, you’ll one day be able to book both a car rideshare and a flight at the same time. The car will drop you at the nearest vertiport, where an air taxi will await you and several other passengers. You’ll climb in, stow your luggage, and head to the airport (or some other popular high-volume destination). The companies predict after the market settles you’ll pay about the same as an Uber X for the privilege, but will reach your destination in a fraction of the time.

And time, says Joby’s lead on Corporate Development and Partnerships, is ultimately the key value proposition.

“(Joby has a) Deep alignment to sustainably give people time back – to spend it with the people who matter most,” Vinay Patel told the trade mission at the start of its tour on Tuesday.

And, as the delegation saw, Joby appears to have the technology to do precisely that.

Below: The CAAM-led delegation watches a Joby demonstration flight. Image courtesy of Joby via LinkedIn

Joby CAAM demo, Joby image

JOBY

 

Joby was the first stop for the Canadian trade delegation. All members of the mission signed NDAs, so there’s a limit to what we can reveal here. What we can say – and this applies to all three companies – is that the hype is real. Though there are still FAA certification hurdles to overcome and production to scale, these aircraft are indeed transformative and will someday change both our skies – and our experience of flying. Depending on your city and your destination, spending precious time in gridlock could become a distant memory.

One of Joby’s big selling points – in addition to the convenience and efficiency – is that these aircraft are quiet. When in forward flight, the company says tests have shown the sound pressure level is basically equivalent to a background conversation. During the demonstration, the aircraft took off vertically and went into hover for some specific manoeuvres. Vertical takeoff and landing are the loudest phase of flight.

During the demonstration, the aircraft was – and we’re giving you our best guess here – about 125 metres away. An Apple Watch registered a mere 73 decibels at peak, followed by a steady 67 dBa at hover. Plus, the aircraft did not have the unpleasant whine that often characterises multi-rotor vehicles. Joby and the other companies visited have all put a great emphasis (and countless engineering hours) into reducing the noise level of these aircraft. It’s something they know is an important factor for public acceptance, especially with plans for frequent flights in urban settings. Noise, based on this demo, will not be an issue when these roll out.

 

SOME COOL STUFF

 

There was no shortage of that. But a few things at Joby really stood out. The company is highly vertically integrated – meaning it manufactures nearly everything that goes into its aircraft. This allows it to, obviously, manufacture to its own specs and its own quality control standards. We were able to handle pieces of several 3D printed metal parts – which were unbelievably light. Keeping down weight, of course, extends both range and increases payload capacity – both of which are priorities.

“What makes Joby special is the vertical integration,” said Founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “We’re leveraging the incredible advances in technology…to build dramatically more performant eVTOLs.”

The aircraft fuselage is made with composites, and automation is a factor whenever possible in its Pilot Production Plant in Marina, CA (a massive plant, capable of producing 500 aircraft per year, is being built in Dayton, Ohio). Though some parts are laid up by hand, the company uses specialised industrial arms to lay down pre-impregnated composite materials to extremely high tolerances. These robots are called AFP – Automatic Fibre Placement machines. Once the multiple layers have been precisely placed, the part is moved on its jig into a high-temperature autoclave that bakes it under pressure for many hours to ensure everything fuses to maximum strength. Ultrasonic testing is completed on these parts to ensure uniform quality and zero flaws.

There’s more. So much more. But Joby’s pilot factory, designed with the assistance of Toyota engineers (Toyota is a major Joby investor) appeared to be a model of efficiency. The company is expanding its production space at this location by another 225,000 square feet – to meet demand prior to that massive Ohio facility getting online. The company’s Integrated Test Lab links a simulator to a separate room where every single component of the aircraft is activated in real-time in response to inputs for testing and data acquisition and validation. It’s known as an “Iron Bird” – because it’s just the components and not the actual aircraft and does not fly. But wow, does it ever produce valuable data. Engineers can also throw faults its way to see how the system responds. 

If you look far to the future, said CEO Bevirt, air taxis are likely just the beginning of the transformation that will result from aircraft like these. They will connect regions that currently are underserved – or not served at all – by traditional aviation. And the technology advances? They, too, are predicted to have a much larger and positive impact on the broader aviation industry. New battery and charging technologies, new avionics, hydrogen fuel – these are all major disruptors, he says.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he told the crowd.

Below: Joby isn’t the only company using an Iron Bird. Wisk also uses an Iron Bird for testing and improving the components and performance of its aircraft

ARCHER

 

The next stop, Wednesday, was a tour of the Archer facilities in San Jose. Like Joby, it’s well capitalised and on the cusp of a huge expansion. In December, it cut the ribbon on its new 400,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Covington, Georgia. Tooling load-in is underway, and by the end of the year the facility is scheduled to produce two aircraft per month. By 2030, that number is projected to be 650 aircraft per year.

Archer’s secret sauce is its proprietary electric motors. It is not chasing the vertical integration that is a hallmark of Joby, but instead purchases components it needs from manufacturers that already have these parts in FAA certified aircraft. It has partnerships with established companies like Honeywell, Safran and more. What’s unique in its path, said its head of Strategy and Business Development, is that “there are no science projects.”

MIDNIGHT

 

Its aircraft, called Midnight, has a total of 12 motors. Six sit on booms forward of the fixed wing and are tiltable for VTOL and forward flight. Six motors on the same booms but aft of the wing are fixed and used only for the VTOL portion of flight. Midnight logged some 400 flights in 2024 and flies pretty much every single day out of Salinas, CA.

The company has put a great deal of engineering into its battery technology, including thermal and electronic failsafes to either prevent or mitigate a thermal runaway. Each battery runs two diagonally opposed motors. So in the unlikely event of a battery failure, losing those two motors would still allow the aircraft to fly in a balanced mode.

Like all of these companies, full FAA certification is complex and will take time. But Archer is working closely with the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of United Arab Emirates. It has plans on the table to begin flights of Midnight in Abu Dhabi by the end of 2025, and hopes for FAA Type Certification in 2026.

Below: The Canadian Trade Delegation prepares to enter Archer’s lab, followed by an image of Midnight on a display in Archer’s lobby

INDRO’S TAKE

 

InDro will definitely be part of the coming world of Advanced Air Mobility, and has done extensive research in this area, including collaborations with the National Research Council, telcos, and academia. We have laid much of the groundwork for safe BVLOS flight in mixed airspace and will be delivering medical and other critical supplies – both in urban areas and also to under-serviced regions down the road. We obviously have no plans to build an air taxi, but will be deploying drones with heavy lift and extended range capacities. Seeing these companies in California really helped solidify what this future is going to look like, and we embrace it.

“Building companies like these takes immense capital, engineering, and vision. InDro congratulates Joby, Archer and Wisk and looks forward to their deployment,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece.

“We also have concepts underway that will leverage our extensive experience in autonomous ground robots – which we believe will lead to products that could further aid efficiencies for companies like these. We look forward to revealing them down the road. We also thank the team at CAAM for putting together this valuable trade mission.”

Stay tuned. You’ll hear more about Wisk – and the NASA AMES Research Center – next week.

InDro joins Canadian Advanced Air Mobility trade mission to San Francisco

InDro joins Canadian Advanced Air Mobility trade mission to San Francisco

Jan 23, 2025 | Advanced Air Mobility, CAAM, InDro News, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

InDro Robotics is pleased to announce it is part of a delegation heading to the US next week in a trade delegation organised by Canadian Advanced Air Mobility, or CAAM. As Canada’s federal industry association for AAM, CAAM is the nation’s unified voice in the sector, working with industry and regulators to advance the path toward the coming world of Advanced Air Mobility.

You’ve likely heard about AAM by now. But just in case, here’s a quick and high-level refresher: Technology advances of the past decade have led to what are often referred to as transformational aircraft. These run the gamut from large and autonomous cargo drones through to what are commonly called air taxis – electrically powered eVTOL (including standard multi-rotor, fixed-wing VTOL, tilt-rotor and other innovative designs) intended to carry humans and cargo. Nearly all of these aircraft are electrically powered and sustainable, while some involve hybrid designs with fuel-powered generators supplying or topping up electrical power for the motors. You can also throw smaller drones into the mix, as they will be sharing airspace and taking on newer use-case scenarios involving autonomous, Beyond Visual Line of Sight flight in urban settings.

 

VALUE PROP

 

These aircraft will fulfil a number of important use-case scenarios. For example, they will transport people or cargo to areas that currently do not have airports. They will also move goods and humans quickly across large urban areas. Minimal infrastructure is needed for these VTOL aircraft. Rather than an airport, these devices will take off and land from “vertiports” similar to helicopter pads.

People or critical supplies can be transported efficiently and sustainably to places that were previously not an option for traditional aircraft – and where the cost or availability could not justify helicopter flights. They will transport critical medical supplies between hospitals in a fraction of the time ground transport would require. Smaller drones might deliver devices like Automated External Defibrillators, Epipens or life-saving medications in emergencies.

Plus, of course, air taxis will carry people across major urban centres or to nearby satellite regions. Eventually, it’s envisioned you’ll be able to hail one of these machines the same way you call an Uber – and your pickup spot will be a vertiport.

This future isn’t coming immediately, as Federal Aviation Administration Type certifications are still underway. But it most definitely is coming. Several companies – which the CAAM delegation will visit – are leaders in the air taxi space, with fully functional aircraft they plan to put into operation once FAA certification is complete.

As for the FAA? The US regulator is fully onboard with this new era but obviously wants to ensure the integration between traditional aviation and these transformational vehicles is safely achieved. To that end, it has already released a blueprint for how it envisions this mixed air traffic will play out:

THE US LEADERS

 

A number of US companies are at the vanguard of this new era, designing and testing aircraft that are very close to being production models. And CAAM, led by Executive Director JR Hammond, has pulled together a trip that will allow delegates to meet with several of the key players based in San Francisco. The mission will have onsite visits and – pending weather – observe demo flights at the following AAM leaders:

 

WISK

 

This company has built what it describes as the “world’s first self-flying, all-electric, four-seat air taxi.” Its current model, called Generation 6, “is the world’s first all-electric, autonomous, four-seat eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) air taxi designed for passenger transport. Our larger, spacious new aircraft provides more space for passengers and their luggage, and ensures that our service is accessible for those with disabilities.”

The unique design incorporates both eVTOL and a fixed wing for range. Its eight tiltable robots enable vertical take-off and landing. Once in the air, those rotors tilt forward for the transition into more efficient fixed-wing flight. Range is 144 kilometres (90 miles), traveling at speeds up to 120 knots. Generation 6 can recharge in a scant 15 minutes, allowing for rapid turnaround. This is a fully autonomous aircraft with multiple redundant safety features, and with human oversight from the ground. WISK is a fully owned subsidiary of Boeing, and has been in operation since 2010.

Below: The WISK Generation 6

WISK Generation 6

JOBY

 

The CAAM delegation will visit another leader in this space, Joby Aviation. Its six-rotor piloted aircraft is designed to carry four people, and also employs tilt rotors and a fixed wing. It’s also fast – capable of speeds up to 320 km/hour (200 mph). Despite the six large rotors, Joby has put considerable engineering effort into one of the downsides of multi-rotors: Noise.

According to Joby, its aircraft is as “quiet as a conversation.” And they’re not the only ones saying it. The company websites quotes Aviation Week’s Guy Norris as saying: “The aircraft made only a partially perceptible sound that, in this editor’s view, would almost certainly be undetectable against the everyday noise background of an urban environment.” So that’s a big bonus.

Though there will undoubtedly be many useful routes once this aircraft is certified and integrated into US airspace, its website envisions flights such as from a downtown vertiport in New York City to JFK airport. Driving by car, says Joby, takes 49 minutes; flying gets you there in seven minutes.

The company is in the midst of testing and certification with the FAA, and has completed the first three of five stages in that process. Joby has flown more than 50,000 km on its full-scale prototype and Toyota has announced it will be investing US $500M into the company in 2025.

Below: Joby takes flight

ARCHER

 

The third air taxi company on the agenda is Archer. In 2024, the company received its Part 135 Air Carrier & Operator Certificate from the FAA – one of just two air taxi manufacturers globally to have announced receipt of that certificate. Its “Midnight” aircraft is currently undergoing FAA Type certification. The company has delivered an aircraft to the United States Air Force – the first of a potential six in a contract worth up to US $142M. It is planning to begin trials in India shortly, with other venues on tap.

All of these air taxis have interesting designs, but Midnight is particularly intriguing. It has six tilt-rotors forward of its fixed wing, and an additional six fixed rotors aft of that wing. So a total of 12 rotors lift and land Midnight vertically, while the six tilt-rotors make the transition to and provide thrust for forward flight. The tips of the tilt-rotor propellors are flexed backwards to reduce noise.

 

NASA

 

In addition to visiting the three above companies, the CAAM delegation will also spend a day at the NASA AMES Research Center. That visit will include seeing NASA’s Vertical Motion Simulator, an Advanced Air Mobility simulation, a live demonstration of an eVTOL AAM vehicle, and plenty of discussion around the implications and challenges of this new phase in global aviation.

In addition to CAAM, there will be 33 companies, regulators and research institutes on the trip. These include Transport Canada, NAV Canada, the National Research Council – as well as such established companies as CAE, Kongsberg Geospatial, and NGC Aerospace.

“This trip represents a tremendous opportunity for Canadian entities in this sector to meet with some of the leaders in the AAM world and see their technologies up close,” says CAAM Executive Director JR Hammond.

“But just as importantly, it gives these leading AAM companies a chance to learn about the incredible Canadian companies that are in or adjacent to this space and explore potential partnerships down the road. We are incredibly excited about this trip.”

Below: The Archer Midnight hits a major milestone in June of 2024, with its first transition flight. It’s a longer video, but a cool one

INDRO’S TAKE

 

The world of Advanced Air Mobility is coming. And InDro is pleased to be taking part in this CAAM-organized event.

InDro has long worked to advance the concept of integrated airspace, carrying out a broad variety of research in concert with Transport Canada and the National Research Council in areas ranging from Detect and Avoid technologies through to testing urban wind tunnels to help with prediction models and future standards for urban RPAS flight. We’ve even tested and mapped the strength of 5G signals at various altitudes in urban environments to ensure robust connections for future autonomous flights over cities and potential UTM systems.

We have concrete plans for deliveries of critical supplies, including deploying heavy-lift and long-range drones – which will be part of the AAM space. And, with our expertise in designing and building autonomous mobile robots, we foresee other opportunities.

“The future of AAM is all about automation, including autonomous flight and an eventual automated Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) system that will ensure safe flights within corridors and minimise any potential for conflict with traditional aviation,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece.

“As part of that automated future, InDro is currently exploring AMRs that will autonomously assist with tasks like cargo loading and offloading, repositioning aircraft on the ground, and more. We look forward to working with AAM clients to build robust solutions in this space.”

We’d also like to mention that this trade mission was made possible through the CanExport Program by the Government of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service.

Interested in this sector? Stay tuned; we’lll be sending reports from the field.

InDro launches online robotics store

InDro launches online robotics store

Jan 20, 2025 | InDro News, InDro Online Store, Industry News, Robot parts, Robotics, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

In the market for a robot? A LiDAR sensor? Perhaps a Six Degree of Freedom manipulator?

You’ve come to the right place. InDro Robotics is pleased to announce its new online store – your one-stop portal for high quality robotic components. Whether it’s a $2500 US LIMO (an amazing tiny R&D powerhouse) or a $80,000 Robosense LiDAR, we’ve got you covered.

“We’re incredibly excited about this addition to our offerings,” says Head of R&D Sales Luke Corbeth. “For clients who need a specific component and know what they want, this will streamline the process and get products into their hands more quickly.”

We’re not talking here about custom builds – something InDro has built a stellar reputation on. But precisely because we’ve done so many custom builds, we’ve been able to identify best-in-class components. And while the majority of our clients come to InDro so that we can do the integration for them, there are some who want to either perform that integration themselves, or simply add a sensor or compute upgrade to an existing robot.

“Through building all of these robots, we’ve had a front row seat into what works, what doesn’t work, what’s best – and what is most cost-effective,” adds Corbeth. “Over time, we’ve settled on a select few components we use in the vast majority of our builds. So the purpose of the store is that if you want a component that goes into an InDro Robotics build – up to a fully functional quadruped – you can simply order it online from us.”

Below: Manipulator? LiDAR? InDro’s new online store offers a broad but highly curated selection of quality robotics components

 

Online store manipulator LiDAR

SIMPLIFYING THE CLIENT JOURNEY

 

Through scores of custom builds, including robots for some of the largest tech companies in the world, we’ve identified the most robust and cost-effective components. We’ve also learned that some clients with existing robots want to simply add a sensor or upgrade their compute.

For those clients who know specifically what they’re after, the online store streamlines the purchasing process. And if you’re unsure precisely which component would be optimal for your application? There are plenty of choices with LiDAR and compute, for example. No worries. Corbeth is still happy to walk you through the options and help you decide on the best choice for your application.

“In a lot of cases, people will have done their research and know precisely what they want. But, absolutely, I’m always available to have a discussion and ensure they’re choosing exactly what they need,” he says.

 

THIS IS NOT TEMU

 

InDro has zero interest in selling clients something they don’t need, or a component that won’t get the job done. That’s why the offerings in our store have been carefully curated. These are the components our engineers work with every single day – and which go into the custom robots we integrate for clients. Each and every item available online is a product we have confidence in, and which has been proven in the field. Our online store includes multiple options in the following categories:

  • Components: Cameras, compute, LiDAR, mobile manipulators, wireless charging
  • Robots: GO2 quadruped, LIMO Pro, LIMO
  • Drones: Multiple offerings and add-ons from DJI

But why not simply shop around and buy these somewhere else online? Sure, you could do that. However, you’d be missing out on the InDro after-sales support we are known for. If you have an issue with integrating a component purchased from InDro, Luke is just a phone call away. And, in the rare event he doesn’t have the answer, you have access to our brain trust of engineers at Area X.O to solve your problem. That’s not something you’ll get purchasing online from some faceless, distant distributor.

Plus, clients get access to InDro’s extensive documentation on these products and their integration.

“We’re going to share every resource that we use ourselves when building robots to help enable their development,” says Corbeth.

And, because InDro is an authorised distributor for every component we sell, you don’t run the very real risk of purchasing a grey market product – where manufacturers tend to not honour warranties.

Plus, there are some smaller items – like that tiny but powerful LIMO R&D robot – where the client knows that’s exactly what they want. (We have one client who has purchased dozens of these robots.) In scenarios like that, there’s no question the online store will speed the process.

“These smaller ticket items don’t need to go through the same administrative process as our larger custom robots. They can be purchased on a procurement credit card, which completely bypasses the traditional procurement process,” says Corbeth.

“So, absolutely, this will be an easier way for people to do rapid transactions and get the hardware quickly.”

Below: Can we give you (or sell you) a hand?

Online Store

INDRO’S TAKE

 

We’re pretty excited about the new online store. The components we offer, whether it’s a Robosense LiDAR or a DJI drone, all come with the manufacturer’s warranty – along with InDro’s exhaustive documentation and legendary post-sales support.

“We’re confident the store will help clients get the quality components they need as quickly as possible,” says InDro Robotics Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “I wouldn’t call it the Amazon of robotics – at least not yet – but it will definitely simplify the purchasing process for those clients who know specifically what they want, and get those products in their hands more quickly.”

The look and feel of the store was conceived by Head of Marketing Carli Parkinson – who worked closely with Luke Corbeth and our engineering staff to select the absolute best range of robotic components (and even robots) for its inventory.

There’s already a robust selection online. But, of course, as newer specialised products become available and we integrate and test them in our own robots, they’ll be added to the lineup.

We encourage you to take a spin through the store now. And, if you’re ready to purchase but have any questions, contact us here. Happy shopping!

New InDro Sentinel has wireless charging enclosure for remote operations

New InDro Sentinel has wireless charging enclosure for remote operations

Jan 13, 2025 | InDro Autonomy, InDro Controller, InDro News, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

If you follow our news, you’re likely familiar with our Sentinel inspection robot. It’s been built specifically for monitoring critical assets like electrical substations etc. – places where you need regular eyes on assets without the cost and inconvenience of having a human being on site.

We are pleased to announce that InDro Robotics has perfected an outdoor enclosure that keeps Sentinel protected from harsh weather, while allowing for wireless recharging.

“If you imagine a robot in any sort of demanding outdoor environment to improve the longevity of the equipment, you want to keep it away from the elements as much as possible – which is why the enclosure exists,” explains Luke Corbeth, InDro’s Head of R&D Sales.

“For any demanding outdoor application such as substation inspection, solar farm inspection, etcetera, you’re going to want to keep the robot out of the rain, away from the wind, out of direct heat. These elements are why the enclosure exists.”

And the best part? Sentinel can autonomously return to that enclosure to rest and recharge completely on its own. And that makes it perfect for even the most distant of assets. If there’s a cellular connection, Sentinel can be a totally remote employee.

Below: The new Sentinel enclosure, on site at our R&D headquarters at Ottawa’s Area X.O

Sentinel enclosure Ottawa Hydro

JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH…

 

And what comes next? April, of course. And the reason we’re going down this road is because Sentinel finds its roost using a code known as AprilTags. They’re similar to QR codes, but have been designed for 3D orientation. Sentinel’s enclosure uses AprilTags – which are detected by onboard cameras – for the robot to find its way home, and snug up nice and close to its wireless recharging system.

“The robot is trained to know exactly what these tags look like from every angle,” says Corbeth. “And by looking at these tags, it’s able to determine: ‘Oh, I’m a little bit off in this direction, so I need to make this adjustment.’ That ensures that we have a smooth and reliable docking and undocking sequence every single time the robot goes in and out of the enclosure.”

There’s a slightly inclined ramp for Sentinel to access this tiny recharging home. And the floor is deliberately a bit slippery in order for Sentinel to fine-tune its docking procedure by, for lack of a better word, drifting inside the enclosure to get its bearings.. And the charging system? Amazing.

The Wibotic charger is incredibly efficient. One hour of wireless charging is enough for Sentinel to fully recharge and deploy on a five-hour mission. Let’s repeat that: One hour of wireless charging gives Sentinel five hours on the ground.

The other advantage is that, because it’s wireless, there are no mechanical interfaces. These can be a potential point of failure, which is the last thing you’d want on a remote, autonomous installation. The whole point of these installations is for a robot to take care of things on its own.

“Anytime you have a mechanical interface, there are usually prongs involved. These can get bent or damaged – which is the last thing you’d want on a remote installation. So wireless charging completely eliminates that potential point of failure,” says Corbeth.

Below: Sentinel in its enclosure. You can see one of the AprilTags, which are used for Sentinel to perfectly align with the Wibotic charger

 

Sentinel enclosure Ottawa Hydro

REAL WORLD DEMO

 

Sentinel has been through multiple iterations as platforms, sensors and  compute improve. The newest version uses a wheeled platform (though a separate version with treads is available). Compute is a powerful AI-enabled processor capable of many Trillions of Operations per Second (TOPS). And because we deploy with InDro Controller, our in-house user interface, Sentinel can be easily programmed to repeat highly complex tasks.

Say, for example, you are particularly interested in the reading on a gauge. The first time you deploy Sentinel using InDro Controller, you would manually adjust the Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera to capture an image of that asset. But once you’ve done it once? InDro Controller remembers the settings – so you can deploy Sentinel on an autonomous mission and it will remember all parameters. It will capture the same image, on its own, during any subsequent deployment. This applies to any sensor, capturing any data.

 

HYDRO OTTAWA DEMO

 

Recently, InDro got in touch with Hydro Ottawa. We were looking to deploy Sentinel in a real-world situation, and Hydro Ottawa has an electrical substation in the city. We were interested in testing Sentinel in that scenario, and Hydro Ottawa was interested in seeing what Sentinel could do.

We deployed over the Rogers 5G network, using InDro Controller to quickly plot its route and some specific Points of Interest (which did indeed include a gauge). Then we let Sentinel go about its business completely on its own with an autonomous mission.

The result? Phenomenal. Sentinel captured all the salient data, demonstrating its immense capabilities as a ‘set and forget’ robot. Now that the data is in InDro Controller, Sentinel can carry out the same mission on a schedule with zero human intervention. Data will be automatically uploaded – and Sentinel is even capable of sending alerts if, say, that gauge was sending a reading of concern.

“We were able to plot a full preventative maintenance mission – and then run it autonomously several times within a two-hour window,” says Corbeth.

What’s more? It was freezing cold, putting Sentinel to the test in a harsh environment. This is what this robot was built to carry out – and can operate in environments from -20C to +30C.

And the Hydro Ottawa people?

“They were blown away,” says Corbeth. “They even told me: ‘Luke, your team should be very proud.'”

We are.

Below: Sentinel at a Hydro Ottawa substation

 

Sentinel enclosure Ottawa Hydro

INDRO’S TAKE

 

Sentinel has been an ongoing project for InDro for several years. We have continually upgraded the product as newer sensors and AI compute capabilities have become available. In conjunction with InDro Controller, this is now a fully commercial product. In fact, we recently shipped three of these to a US client and look forward to reporting on this when they are first deployed (which is happening shortly).

“Sentinel is one of our core products,” says InDro Robotics Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “Our team, both at Area X.O and InDro Forge, have worked very hard on the design and integration of this product. And InDro Controller, under the hands of Head of Software RJ Bundy, is an extremely intuitive and powerful user interface. We look forward to manufacturing many more Sentinels in 2025.”

Oh. We almost forgot to tell you that Sentinel is available as a quadruped, so it can tackle stairs and more demanding environments. So cool.

Interested in learning more – including a remote demo where you can take control of Sentinel? Contact us here.

InDro Robotics looks back on 2024: It was a very good year

InDro Robotics looks back on 2024: It was a very good year

Jan 7, 2025 | Uncategorized

By Scott Simmie

We always like to pause at this time of the year and reflect; to look back on the year that was and celebrate the milestones and innovations achieved by Team InDro. It’s an exercise that’s always both satisfying and somewhat surprising, as we routinely forget just how much we managed to pack in. 

2024 was a very good year for InDro Robotics, as well as InDro Forge – our rapid prototyping and limited production run facility based at Ottawa’s Bayview Yards. 

Before we get into outlining all the specific projects and breakthroughs we’ve enjoyed during the year, it’s worth mentioning that while the focus of this story will largely be the engineering work carried out at our Area X.O research and development headquarters, InDro Robotics also has employees elsewhere in Canada, including Toronto, London, Alberta and British Columbia.

And – as you’ll see – they do cool stuff, too.

Below: The newest iteration of our Sentinel inspection workhorse

Industrial Inspection Robot

THE BIG PICTURE

 

The high-level view is a good one, and it’s this: InDro excelled in 2024 at putting complex robots and drones into the hands of clients across North America. These clients include others engaged in the R&D world – particularly universities and academics – as well as corporate clients and even global technology companies.

We’ve always done that. But there were two key factors that made for a difference in 2024. The first was that InDro Forge, our rapid prototyping and limited production run facility, truly came into its own. Forge, located at Ottawa’s Bayview Yards, is now our go-to for custom metal work, 3D printing and platform enclosures. (On the 3D printing front, we can fabricate objects up to one cubic metre.) The fit and finish of the products emerging from InDro Forge, whether for us or other clients, is exceptional.

The other big news from 2024 is about InDro’s growth and trajectory. We continued to expand our engineering team at Area X.O – and now have multiple high-level specialists in every sector of engineering: Mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, front-end software developers – the list goes on. So InDro scaled significantly in 2024 and has plans to continue in 2025.

We also developed new products in 2024 we’re confident will be commercially successful. As a result, there’s a shift coming in 2025. Yes, we’ll continue to do all the great R&D and custom robotics we’ve built our reputation on. But we’ll also be in a position, in conjunction with InDro Forge, to become a fully-fledged manufacturer.

Yes, we’ve manufactured before – sometimes designing and building multiple robots for a single client, or building our ever-popular InDro Commander. But we haven’t really manufactured at scale. This year, we’re confident we have the products, the capacity, the team and the vision for this to take place.

With all that context out of the way, let’s take a look at what we accomplished in 2024, starting with InDro Cortex – one of the products that has already generated significant interest and which we will manufacture in 2025.

Below: Rosie the dual manipulator robot – one of many complex builds for clients we carried out in 2024

Rosie

INDRO CORTEX

 

InDro Cortex is a very small, very smart box that will elevate the capabilities of any robot or drone. It’s also the logical successor to our popular InDro Commander. That product also made robots smarter – and far easier for anyone with even modest robotics knowledge to integrate.

Commander contains high-power AI compute. Cortex takes that up a significant notch. Its brains reside within the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit, rated at 275 TOPS – that’s 275 Trillion Operations Per Second. Both the 8GB and 16GB versions will be integrated into Cortex, pending client needs.

In addition, Cortex contains a high-speed 5G/4G modem and antenna for remote teleoperation, GPS, the ROS1 and ROS2 (Robot Operating System) software libraries, along with multiple USB slots for rapid sensor integration and power supply. Someone purchasing a robotic locomotion platform could simply add Commander or Cortex – and then rapidly integrate multiple sensors. Those sensors are automatically detected, so it truly is a “plug & play” device. Pretty much every custom robot we build for clients has one of these boxes, and many clients purchase Commander as a standalone in order to simplify and speed their own integrations.

Because our motto is “Invent, Enhance, Deploy” we couldn’t stand on our laurels. As newer AI compute and other components came along, we knew it was time to improve an already-good solution.

“InDro Cortex grew out of the idea of making a general purpose backpack/module that any OEM could put on their motorized product – everything from a ground robot to even a golf cart, drone, car, truck or RC platform,” says Engineering Lead Arron Griffiths. “That single module makes any platform ROS-enabled, AI-ready and 5G connected.”

And it’s small. We designed four circuit boards to ensure smooth integration, top-speed remote teleoperation and even secure WiFi.

“It’s tiny so it fits on everything – whether that’s a ground robot or a drone,” says InDro Vice President Peter King. “So basically we can turn any platform into a very powerful robot without all the time and hassle.”

There’s been incredible interest in Cortex already. We plan on manufacturing and shipping to clients in Q3. Pre-orders are being taken now by Head of R&D Sales Luke Corbeth.

Below: An exploded view of InDro Cortex – the brains for your next robot, followed by our V1 enclosure

 

InDro Control Module ICM Cortex
InDro Cortex

INDRO CONTROLLER

 

Another highlight of 2024 was on the software side. Our clients were asking for an intuitive and secure mission planner/controller, something that would make it easy to plan even highly complex autonomous missions.

InDro Controller is a powerful desktop UI for operating any robot. With a highly secure data connection, InDro Controller automatically senses all key parameters of any robotic device. It detects any sensors, providing a data feed from all of them with minimal latency. It also checks out overall robot health and provides instant feedback for the operator.

“It can handle all sorts of data,” says Lead Software Engineer RJ Bundy. “It doesn’t matter if the robot has standard or custom sensors, InDro Controller can automatically detect and visualize them. For example, if you added a radar unit to an existing robot, the system will pick up on that immediately.”

We’re not simply talking about missions that go from waypoint to waypoint. InDro Controller will remember any specific actions carried out during a mission and save and repeat them. For example, imagine you have a pressure gauge on site that needs to be monitored. The first time that mission is planned, the operator would position the pan-tilt-zoom camera on that asset and capture the image. The next time your robot goes out? InDro Controller will recall all parameters and position the camera, zoom and shoot autonomously. The system can even be programmed to fire an alert if a parameter on that gauge is being exceeded (or if a component exceeds thermal limits, etc.).

A basic version of InDro Controller ships with every robot we produce for clients. The Enterprise version can be leased at an affordable price, with continuous upgrades down the road at no additional cost.

Oh. We also made incredible strides with our InDro Autonomy software stack. With this on board, you can carry out Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) missions in completely unfamiliar environments. Even GPS-denied locations can be navigated with ease.

Below: A look at InDro Controller – which pairs perfectly with InDro Cortex-enabled robots but is itself robot-agnostic

Remote Control for Robots

OTHER MILESTONES AND HIGHLIGHTS

 

Truth is, were we to spend even a couple of paragraphs on each of the many things accomplished in 2024, you’d be reading an opus that would take you well into 2025. We know your time is as valuable as ours, so we’ll touch on the highlights as briefly as possible, with links to complete posts if you’d like more information.

Let’s start with clients. These are some of the many robots we built and shipped in 2024. Some of them were one-off creations, while some orders were for multiple robots.

  • Rosie the Robot: A dual-arm manipulator robot built for the Intelligent-Cyber Physical System Lab, or I-CPS, at Polytechnique Montréal
  • Four swarm robots for North Carolina State University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • The Street Smart Robot, built to autonomously detect and report anomalies on bicycle paths during winter to help keep cyclists safe
  • A total of 28 robots or platforms for Polytechnique Montréal‘s MIST Lab (Making Innovative Space Technology). Their team, using our platforms, was even featured on CNN
  • Multiple custom inspection robot builds for a major US client we cannot name at this time
  • The new Sentinel inspection robot for remote teleoperation in even the harshest of environments

There were more, but these hit the high points in terms of robots out the door that we can reveal without violating NDAs.

We also put in a lot of time with our partners at Cypher Robotics. Cypher is a separate company, but InDro is the technology incubator, assisting Cypher with challenging builds and testing. We are very proud of our work in helping to bring its cycle-counting/precision scanning Captis solution from plans to reality. This autonomous robot has been tested in massive Canadian warehouses, and picked up a ton of buzz at the MODEX and AUTOMATE conferences. Cypher Robotics was even invited to New Zealand, and has partnered with that country’s leading telco provider Spark.

Similar to our technology partnership with Cypher Robotics, InDro has also been assisting the great team at Real Life Robotics – a startup making great inroads in last-mile delivery services. Real Life’s engineering team drew up plans for its newest version of delivery robot “Bubbs” – and InDro Robotics and InDro Forge executed those plans. The result? An autonomous delivery robot that’s been making the rounds (and receiving a lot of coverage) delivering food for animals at the Toronto Zoo.

 

BUSY BUSY BUSY

 

While most eyes seem to be on our work at Area X.O (where we invent, design and build robots), InDro is always busy on multiple fronts. We are constantly involved in research for such bodies as the National Research Council, the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Centre, and more. One of the many interesting projects we began in 2024 (and which continues in 2025), is carrying out precision agriculture missions at cherry and peach orchards in British Columbia. It’s a collaboration between InDro Robotics and the City of Kelowna (enabled with funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agriculture Clean Technology Program).

Yes, we’re using a drone to capture multi spectral data. But – in what we believe is a Canadian first – we’re also deploying ground robots to capture additional plant health data. The missions and analysis are being carried out by our Chief of Flight Operations Dr. Eric Saczuk (who holds a PhD in remote sensing and runs BCIT’s RPAS Hub).

“This is a way of doing ground-based validation of what we’re seeing from the air,” says Dr. Saczuk.

And that’s just one of many interesting projects we were (and are) involved in. These include:

And yes, there’s more.

Our own Kate Klassen, Canada’s most well-known drone instructor (she’s also a multi-engine rated flight instructor with traditional aircraft) continued her exceptional training and advocacy work. She carried out seminars (including a recency session at the Aerial Evolution Association of Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa), took part in highly complex RPAS missions, and even expanded offerings on her already-comprehensive online drone instruction portal, FLYY. 

The newly launched Compass Series of courses is geared to help those who are recently certified to “find direction” or “get their bearings” (we see what you did there, Kate). Based on interviews across her network of experts, you can now learn the fundamentals of what it means to use drones in forestry, C-UAS, LiDAR, AAM and photogrammetry – with more to come!

Klassen (and InDro) are looking forward to new Transport Canada regulations that will enable non-complex BVLOS missions in 2025 without the need for a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC). InDro, if you’re not aware, was the first company to obtain a blanket BVLOS SFOC from Transport Canada, and was the first company to obtain a drone cargo license from the Canadian Transportation Agency. So drones are a deep part of InDro’s DNA.

But so is fun. And to that end, we partnered with the immensely popular Hacksmith YouTube channel – providing a pair of robotic arms that were, well, integrated onto a human. You can catch all the laughs (and challenges)  in the video below. Part II is coming this year!

 

INDRO’S TAKE

 

We have to say it’s pretty satisfying to reflect on the year that was. Team InDro has gone above and beyond once again, hitting multiple significant milestones for ourselves and our clients. What’s more, we had fun doing it.

“I’m immensely proud of all the hard work carried out by our team,” says InDro Robotics CEO and Founder Philip Reece.

“And while it’s an impressive list of accomplishments, the big story is really about growth. InDro has scaled significantly and is now poised to start expanding with manufacturing in 2025. There’s already significant demand for Cortex, and we look forward to seeing that box come off production lines later this year.”

And a quick personal note from the author. I always enjoy interviewing our engineers and learning more about our latest projects. But I also like to focus on InDro’s people from time to time. Two of the stories I really enjoyed this year are these profiles of two team members who made their way from India to InDro…and this look at Head of Engineering Arron Griffiths. Oh – and let’s not forget about Artist-in-Residence Stephan Tzolov.

We look forward to 2025, which – in more ways than one – promises to be an exciting New Year.