Percepto’s Axion Opens Its Inspection AI to Any Drone Fleet

Industrial drone programs now collect more inspection data than teams can review. A single transmission-line survey can produce thousands of images, and the slow part is going through them to find the three that need a repair crew. Percepto, the Austin-based company known for its docked inspection drones, is now selling software for that review step, and it no longer requires customers to fly Percepto hardware.

On October 27, Percepto launched Axion, a software-as-a-service platform that analyzes inspection data from third-party drones, fixed and mobile sensors and existing archives. DroneLife reported the launch the same day. The company describes the move as a shift to a “software-first” strategy, under a new leadership team.

What Axion does

According to Percepto’s announcement, Axion uses more than 160 specialized AI models. Percepto says it trained them on more than 100,000 hours of autonomous inspection data collected over the last decade. Rather than scanning each image in isolation, the platform sorts data by asset and judges condition in context. The company gives two examples:

• Spotting a downed wire by where it sits relative to the components around it.
• Judging whether a thermal hot spot is actually abnormal, given how the equipment normally behaves and the conditions at the time.

Each finding comes with the asset’s inspection history and expert validation. Users can also ask questions about their assets in plain language and get answers and maintenance recommendations from data already in the platform. That means they don’t have to build separate reports.

Operators can start with data they already have. If they need more frequent coverage later, they can add Percepto’s Ranger drones, Harbor docking stations and managed remote operations. Percepto operates under a nationwide FAA beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) waiver.

The business side

Julien Bellanger leads the new management team as CEO, with Kurt Nantkes as chief revenue officer and Amir Khoshniyati as chief marketing officer. Percepto also said an unnamed major U.S. energy company has extended their partnership with a multi-year contract for aerial data collection and AI analytics across its transmission network. The company is also moving its engineering, manufacturing and assembly to the United States, where it already runs its remote operations. That matters to utility and government buyers who face growing restrictions on drones and parts with foreign supply chains.

The hardware-agnostic approach is the bigger story. Most utilities and refineries already own a mixed fleet and years of image archives. An analytics tool that accepts data from a pilot’s own drone, instead of a matching docking station, is far easier to sell. It also puts Percepto in competition with other inspection-software and digital-twin vendors, not just other dock makers.

What this means for drone pilots

• Data quality decides the job. If clients feed your images into AI models, consistent overlap, angles, altitudes and thermal settings matter more than ever. Repeatable flight plans make your data usable year after year.
• Your drone doesn’t lock you out. Hardware-agnostic platforms mean a skilled Part 107 contractor flying their own aircraft can still deliver into an enterprise workflow. Ask clients what formats and metadata their platform expects.
• Engineers still sign off. AI can flag a problem, but licensed professionals usually decide what gets repaired. Professional engineers increasingly use drones as a tape measure in the sky for inspections and as-built checks. If that’s you, Drone U’s Engineering CE class lets you earn PDH credits while learning to fly. Continuing education doesn’t have to suck.
• BVLOS is the scale play. Percepto’s nationwide waiver shows where inspection work is headed while operators wait for the FAA’s Part 108 rule.

Every one of these careers starts with the same credential. Our Part 107 course gets you certified and ready to fly paid inspection work.

Sources: DroneLife; Percepto via PR Newswire

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