AeroVironment [AVAV] on Wednesday said it has acquired Planck Aerosystems, a small company that develops and supplies technology that enables autonomous operations by aircraft, ground and marine vehicles and vessels.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AeroVironment said it will integrate Planck’s flight autonomy and navigation solutions into its unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and other multi-domain robotic systems to improve operations in contested environments. AeroVironment also said the autonomous flight technology would be integrated into its JUMP 20 medium UAS family.
In addition to its small and medium UAS, AeroVironment offers small and medium unmanned ground vehicles, and loitering munitions.
Planck, which is based in San Diego, offers customers its Autonomous Control Engine computer and camera, which can be embedded in existing robotic systems to enable autonomous take-off-and-landing from moving platforms, including vehicles, boats and off-shore platforms, relative navigation, operations in GPS-denied environments, and failsafe modes. For robotic systems that already have enough computing power on board, ACE can be supplied as a software application.
The ACE product has been applied to a number of different platforms worldwide, including more than 30 aircraft types such as small UAS and larger systems weighing 200 pounds.
“Planck has a compelling product and technology roadmap with valuable capabilities that we plan to deploy and integrate with AeroVironment’s existing portfolio of intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems,” Wahid Nawabi, chairman, president and CEO of AeroVironment, said in a statement. “The Planck team has developed advanced unmanned autonomy and navigation solutions for various defense and commercial customers and by working together, we believe we offer more compelling and differentiated solutions to our customers moving forward.”
AeroVironment said Planck was acquired by its Petaluma, Calif.-based medium UAS business segment.
The acquisition also gives AeroVironment a new unmanned product, the AVEM mobile tethered sensor platform that provides persistent autonomous surveillance from moving vehicles and vessels in all conditions. Planck also offers machine learning object detection and tracking systems.
Planck’s customers include the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, security agencies, allied governments and offshore industrials.
Planck’s financial adviser on the deal was Canaccord Genuity
.