Partnership to Bring Autonomous Swarm Software to Fixed-Wing UAVs

A new collaboration between defense technology firm Palladyne AI Corp. and long-range drone developer Orkid Tech will extend real-time autonomous swarming software to vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing aircraft.

The initiative combines Orkid’s NDAA-compliant fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle platform with Palladyne AI’s Pilot and SwarmOS software. Designed for both the U.S. Department of War and industrial commercial markets—including oil & gas, power, wildfire management, and public safety—the integrated system allows fixed-wing drones to operate with true autonomy rather than relying on preprogrammed flight paths or automated waypoint following.

Orkid’s aircraft deploys in minutes without requiring a runway and features modular payload flexibility to accommodate various mission-specific sensors. By equipping these aircraft with Palladyne AI’s autonomy suite, the combined systems can adapt in real time to shifting conditions in the air and on the ground, enabling a single pilot to manage a multi-aircraft swarm with reduced 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 defense 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.”

The collaboration marks a critical step toward validating true autonomy in real-world environments following recent operational testing.

“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 defense and industrial customers.”