SiMa.ai and ARK Electronics have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous drones for commercial, industrial, agriculture and defence applications. The companies have introduced the ARK-SiMa.ai Modalix MLSoC Bundles, production-ready solutions designed to help drone manufacturers and developers build intelligent autonomous systems faster and at a lower cost.
The partnership combines SiMa.ai’s Physical AI platform with ARK Electronics’ drone and robotics electronics expertise. The companies said the joint solution provides a complete technology base for developing high-performance autonomous drones and other robotic systems. SiMa.ai’s Physical AI platform combines hardware and software through the Modalix System-on-Module (SoM), which is built on the Modalix MLSoC, and Palette Neat, an agentic development environment designed to reduce AI development time from months to days.
The platform is intended to provide the computing capabilities needed for AI-based applications while addressing size, weight, power and cost requirements. The companies said the joint solution is designed for commercial, industrial, agricultural and defence deployments.
“The drone market is at an inflection point, and winning programmes will be built on platforms that pair globally trusted hardware with best-in-class AI compute,” said Durga Peddireddy, VP of Strategic Business Development and Partnerships, SiMa.ai.
“With ARK Electronics, we are delivering the ecosystem a complete US-made, affordable solution for intelligent autonomy without compromising on performance or trust,” Peddireddy added.
Alex Klimaj, CEO, ARK Electronics, said autonomous intelligence is becoming increasingly important for drones used in defence, agriculture and commercial applications. He said the partnership gives customers a purpose-built Physical AI foundation that combines performance per watt with familiar hardware form factors.
The Modalix SoM is form-factor compatible with leading GPU-based edge platforms. According to the companies, this compatibility can help drone and robotics developers accelerate development, reduce design risks and shorten time to market. The joint platform is designed to offer higher performance, lower power consumption and lower costs while meeting SWaP-C requirements covering size, weight, power and cost.
ARK Electronics has built and validated the joint solutions for the drone and robotics market. The company provides mission-critical, made-in-the-USA electronics, including NDAA-compliant and Blue UAS-listed flight controllers, GPS modules, sensors and embedded computers.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, SiMa.ai specializes in Physical AI platforms supporting applications across robotics, industrial automation, automotive, smart vision, aerospace and defense, and healthcare industries. The company focuses on delivering software-centric AI solutions optimized for edge deployment and real-time performan
