Marquardt expands into drone industry through partnership with Airtonomy

By forming a relationship with Airtonomy, Marquardt is beginning its foray into the commercial drone industry.

Marquardt, a German engineering company that is well-known for producing high-quality type systems for the automobile industry, has entered into a partnership with Grand Forks, North Dakota-based Airtonomy, to grow into the business of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).

Airtonomy manufactures software modules that, with the touch of a button, enable drones to fly pre-programmed routes to inspect wind turbines and other difficult-to-reach infrastructure, such as power lines and cell towers, which are frequently hazardous for humans to assess.

“We really see the Drone Industry as up and coming. There's about a 26% compound annual growth rate that we're seeing. In 2027, we're looking to see around a 65B USD industry in the commercial space,” says Marquardt Business Development Manager Christopher Berry.

Airtonomy and Marquardt

Airtonomy delivers an application-agnostic end-to-end solution for drone data management and flight automation, allowing business clients to:

1. Launch new drone programs quickly by reusing data management and automation components.
2. Creates flight templates per asset category for easy reproduction across related items.
3. Enrich and unify drone data for enhanced searchability and interaction with third-party tools and MV algorithms.

Marquardt's global footprint includes 21 locations spread over 13 nations.

Photo courtesy of Airtonomy