Red Cat teams with Apium to bring swarming technology to its unmanned platforms

Red Cat's Black Widow short-range reconnaissance drone (pictured). The company plans to integrate Apium's swarming technology with the Black Widow. (Red Cat Holdings)

Apium Swarm Robotics, a developer of unmanned distributed autonomy systems, and Red Cat Holdings, an unmanned systems manufacturer, have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to integrate Apium's swarming software with Red Cat's platforms, according to a 4 November statement by Red Cat.

Through the agreement, Apium joins the Red Cat Futures Initiative, a robotics and autonomous systems consortium that links Red Cat with companies with key technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision applications, 3D mapping, target acquisition, swarming, and other small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) decision support features, the statement said.

Companies invited to join the consortium offer a mature product that customers want and the ability to deliver, Jeff Thompson, CEO of Red Cat Holdings, told Janes on 20 November.

The MOA comes after the successful integration of Apium's technology with Red Cat's Teal 2 UAS, which was demonstrated at the US Army's ACM-UAS Industry Day at Fort Rucker, Alabama, according to the statement.

“The demonstration showcased the value of decentralised, scalable drone swarming for modern military operations,” the statement said.

Swarming software

Apium's technology allows full swarm capability to be integrated with unmanned air, ground, and naval systems, “enabling a single operator to launch, command, and adapt swarms in real time without complex pre-mission planning or centralised control”, Tyler MacCready, founder and chief scientist at Apium, said in the statement.

The software moves the swarm logic from a central control station to each unmanned platform, enabling each unit “to make independent decisions through co-operation with neighbouring vehicles without requiring a constant uplink or ground control”, the statement said.