Palladyne AI and Orkid Tech partner to extend Palladyne Pilot and SwarmOS autonomy platform to fixed-wing UAVs

Palladyne AI Corp., a U.S.-based defence and industrial technology company delivering embodied AI-powered collaborative autonomy solutions, advanced avionics, precision-manufactured components, UAVs, and advanced aerospace engineering services, and Orkid Tech, a developer of long-range, NDAA-compliant vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), today announced a collaboration to integrate its Palladyne Pilot and SwarmOS autonomy software with Orkid's fixed-wing UAV platform. The companies intend to develop integrated drone systems for the U.S. Department of War and commercial industrial markets, including oil & gas, power, wildfire management, and public safety, extending Palladyne AI's Pilot and SwarmOS platform into a new class of aircraft and adding a fixed-wing growth vector to its addressable market.

The companies will combine Orkid's proven, NDAA-compliant VTOL fixed-wing UAV platform with Palladyne AI's Pilot and SwarmOS autonomy software. Orkid's UAV takes off and lands without a runway, deploys in minutes, and features modular payload flexibility that can be reconfigured for different sensors depending on the mission. By adding Palladyne Pilot or SwarmOS to the Orkid UAV, the companies will deliver fixed-wing systems that operate autonomously, not simply with automated waypoint following or preprogrammed flight, enabling the aircraft to respond in real-time to evolving circumstances on the ground and in the air. The result is a multi-aircraft swarm that a single pilot can operate while reducing cognitive load.

"This is our first partnership focused on bringing SwarmOS to fixed-wing aircraft, and it does so on a proven, fielded platform built for demanding missions," said Ben Wolff, President and CEO of Palladyne AI. "For defence and industrial customers, it means a team of aircraft that will sense, decide, and act together, delivering sharper ISR in contested environments and faster, more complete inspection coverage for commercial operators. It also represents another step toward scaling Palladyne AI's hardware-agnostic software model and capturing the commercial deployment opportunities ahead."

"We evaluated a number of different possibilities for enabling autonomy on our UAVs. There is a lot of hype and overpromising when it comes to true autonomy on UAVs, but Palladyne AI is delivering real collaborative autonomy today. We just completed a joint field exercise with Palladyne AI, and we were able to see SwarmOS in action in the hands of soldiers in real-world exercises," said Santiago Pinzon, CEO and co-founder of Orkid Tech. "The combination of our NDAA-compliant, long-duration, fixed-wing VTOL UAVs with Palladyne AI's collaborative autonomy software will deliver a compelling capability to both defence and industrial customers."