Hardware-Agnostic Physical AI Platform Launched to Unify Drone Fleets

Percepto has launched Axion, a hardware-agnostic Physical AI platform designed to provide mission-critical industrial operators with continuous infrastructure visibility by integrating with existing drone fleets, third-party sensors, and legacy inspection data.

Across power grids, oil and gas facilities, and heavy industrial sites, aging infrastructure and persistent workforce shortages have intensified pressure on maintenance teams to prevent outages, production losses, and safety incidents. Although aerial drone programs and sensor networks generate substantial volumes of field data, manually reviewing footage and identifying maintenance priorities remains a primary operational bottleneck.

Axion addresses this challenge as a software-as-a-service offering that organizes inspection data by asset and applies artificial intelligence to interpret equipment conditions in context. Trained on more than 100,000 hours of autonomous inspection data gathered over a decade, the platform deploys over 160 specialized AI models to differentiate normal wear from critical hazards, such as identifying a downed wire relative to surrounding electrical components or assessing thermal anomalies against environmental conditions. The software also incorporates plain-language query tools, enabling engineers and field personnel to ask questions directly and receive actionable maintenance recommendations without compiling disparate inspection reports.

To guide its software-first expansion, Percepto has assembled an executive team led by CEO Julien Bellanger, joined by Chief Revenue Officer Kurt Nantkes and Chief Marketing Officer Amir Khoshniyati, combining decades of industry experience across robotics, sensors, IoT, Physical AI, and cybersecurity.

“The infrastructure powering our economy should benefit from the same advances in AI that are transforming the digital world,” said Bellanger. “Our vision is to provide operators with a trusted understanding of what is happening across their infrastructure, with the foresight to protect the people and operations that depend on it. Axion is the first step in this next chapter, opening our technology to more operators and putting their existing inspection investments to work toward that goal. From day one, a team can bring the inspection data it already has and see which assets need attention first.”

Founded in 2014 and operating under a nationwide FAA beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waiver, Percepto designed the software to work across multi-vendor environments while also supporting its own autonomous hardware. Operators can analyze records from supported third-party drones and sensors or deploy Percepto’s Ranger drone portfolio and Harbor autonomous stations to gather fresh data for remote monitoring.

The platform’s operational deployment follows a multi-year contract awarded by a leading U.S. energy company to support its transmission line inspection program, expanding a long-standing partnership to provide aerial data collection and AI-powered analytics across the utility’s transmission network. In parallel, Percepto is consolidating its engineering, manufacturing, and assembly operations in the United States alongside its existing domestic remote operations.