Open-Source Champion Auterion Partners With Mars-Exploring Maxon to Deliver State-Of-The-Art Drones for Enterprise and Government
Strategic partnership will offer industry-changing avionics and propulsion system integration for software-defined drones that comply with federal directive, mark future of drone scaling
MOORPARK, Calif. and ZURICH, Switzerland — May 20, 2021 — Auterion, the company building an open and software-defined future for enterprise drone fleets, today announced its partnership with drive and motor specialist maxon — whose precision systems are enabling the autonomous helicopter Ingenuity and rover Perseverance to explore Mars.
Enterprise customers will benefit from the most advanced, open ecosystem of avionics and motors integration in the drone industry, which joins Auterion’s module Skynode and maxon’s best-in-class BLDC motors, like the EC 87 flat UAV motor. The implementation uses open-source standardization that’s critical for the drone industry’s next phase of enterprise scaling and smooth workflow management. Across every commercial, government and non-profit use case, open ecosystem integrations support component upgrades and mixed portfolios of small, medium and heavy-lift drones, carrying a wide variety of specialized payloads or cargo.
The partners are delivering maximum energy efficiency, flexibility, safety and performance to customers by pursuing an optimal systems interplay between maxon’s high-precision motors, electronic speed controllers (ESC) and matching propellers — connected to the complete Auterion platform. The joint goal is to leverage both companies’ know-how to make drone operation, development and fleet management easy for customers at dramatically reduced costs. The companies will explore long-term opportunities around propulsion systems and autopilot communication, data sharing and real-time monitoring.
Addressing Regulatory Reality With Breakthrough Systems
UAV manufacturers and operators are necessarily turning to open-source, western-made options.
“The partnership between Auterion and maxon provides access to the very best drone technology that also addresses impending federal legislation in the United States,” said Kevin Sartori, co-founder of Auterion. “We’re seeing utility companies and others that specifically require drone service providers to offer systems compliant with regulatory executive action. Ultimately, our open-source, software-defined ecosystem built with outstanding partners like maxon is what will instill greater trust in drone components and autonomous technologies.”
Bringing Together Partners With Proven Expertise
A strong partner network that advances state-of-the-art drone technology to solve customer problems is a goal shared by both Auterion and maxon. Eugen Elmiger, CEO of maxon Group, said, “With our motors in NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, we flew on Mars. Now we are focusing on drones on Earth, which will play an important role in the automated future. I am very pleased that we are entering into a cooperation with Auterion, sharing our knowledge and experience so that we can better serve customers in the dynamic drone market. Their expertise in drone software coupled with our 60 years of experience as a global motor and drive specialist will generate promising solutions for the future.”
With unique capabilities, unmatched expertise and a long, proven history of designing and developing high-precision electric motors and motor control modules, maxon is poised to make industry-changing contributions to the drone market and future of autonomous craft.
Auterion’s expertise in developing complete drone software stacks comes from its unique experience building Pixhawk and shaping the PX4 autopilot software, which has become the most used open-source flight control system for autonomous aircraft in the world. Auterion’s Skynode, made in the U.S. and marking a next-generation advancement for the Pixhawk standard, supports all different types of airframes, versatile payloads controlled via an SDK, LTE cloud connectivity and advanced onboard computation and apps.
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About maxon
maxon is a developer and manufacturer of brushed and brushless DC motors, as well as gearheads, encoders, controllers, and entire mechatronic systems. maxon drives are used wherever the requirements are particularly high: in NASA’s Mars rovers, in surgical power tools, in humanoid robots, and in precision industrial applications, for example. maxon has established business units that specifically focus on Aerospace, Industrial Automation, Medical, and Mobility Solutions. To maintain its leadership, the company invests a considerable share of its annual revenue in research and development. Worldwide, maxon has more than 3000 employees at nine production sites and is represented by sales companies in more than 30 countries.
About Auterion
Auterion provides enterprise and government with an ecosystem of software-defined drones, payloads, and third-party applications within a single, easy-to-use platform based on open-source standards. The platform gives operators greater choice, flexibility, and assurance, to improve their drone workflows, from mapping to inspection, cargo, and ISR. With 70+ employees across offices in California, Switzerland, and Germany, Auterion’s global customer base includes GE Aviation, Quantum Systems, Freefly Systems, Avy, and the U.S. Government. Learn more at www.auterion.com.
