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 phase, which spans 2014 to 2019 here.
Now, it’s time to take a 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 1 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
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
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
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
