Wonder Robotics Raises $4M for Smarter Drone Landing Technology
July 11, 2022
Israel-based Wonder Robotics, which is developing autonomous flight and landing of commercial drones, has announced raising $4 million in a seed funding round, led by Elron Ventures in conjunction with Besadno Investment Group. The funds will be used to scale operations and marketing efforts, in addition to developing technology for additional applications.
The lack of technology for operating drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) is hindering the ability for companies to provide safe, autonomous drone flights, making the commercialization of drones expensive and unscalable, Wonder Robotic said. To combat this, the company has developed its unique “WonderLand” for precise autonomous landings, which can be installed on any drone. Clearing landing zones in real time enables emergency autonomous contingency landings in unprepared, uncharted and unattended sites.
The smart safety latter includes vertical awareness and robust precision landing, permitting drone safety beyond an operator’s visual line of sight. Wonder said in urban environments, this can prevent collisions with people and natural and infrastructural impediments, such as trees, cables, buildings, and other dynamic environmental factors.
“We are thrilled to take part in the drone revolution, by partnering with major industry players leveraging on our technology to launch their commercial multi-drone operations,” said Idan Shimon, co-founder and CEO of Wonder Robotics. “Since raising the seed round, we have partnered with Spright, Air Methods’ new drone division, helping it realize its mission to improve access to urgently needed medical supplies for healthcare providers.”
Wonder said its technology can be used for commercial package delivery, infrastructure inspection, mapping and advanced urban mobility (UAM) scenarios. The company said it plans to expand its offering to include horizontal situational awareness for navigation, obstacle detection, avoidance, and safe precision landing in the case of GPS-denied environments.
“Wonder Robotics’ founding team are true industry experts and have the knowledge and technical expertise needed to enable a market waiting to take off, and establish WonderLand as an industry standard,” said Lauren Duke, vice president of business development at Elron Ventures.
For more details on the company’s technology, visit the Wonder Robotics website here.
