Aerofoundry

about us

Who are we?

Daniel Dupré, founder of Aerofoundry, is a remote sensing 'Advanced User' with more than 30 years of experience using aerial surveying and satellite imagery on tropical forest ecology, agroecology, forest management and conservation, land use planning, and rural development in more than 20 countries.

From aerial infrared photography and Landsat 1, to the most recent hyperspectral airborne sensors and laser scanners, Dr. Dupré and his collaborators have always been looking for cutting-edge, cost-efficient remote sensing tools to produce the best spatial information.

As scientific research and land use planning are always on a tight budget, migration to Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) remote sensing tools (instead of poor quality satellite images - no matter the amount of marketing telling the contrary) became a no-brainer.

Today, Aerofoundry is an international team of senior experts and young, very driven engineers specialized in unmanned technologies, high-tech suppliers and highly specialized sub-contractors located all around the World. From Brazil, wher Aerofoundry was born, we are now in four continents... and expanding.

Why Aerofoundry?

In 2008, we were hired to execute a highly complex, very large agroecology zoning project contract in the Amazon. Aerial survey cumbersome logistics, operational difficulties and cost overruns (and the usual 'government induced' headaches in those parts) forced us to search for aerial platform alternatives to carry a hyperspectral payload, and the idea of using a UAS took form.

As we were working in the Amazon, one of the most rugged, demanding environments of the World, the technological challenges were almost unsurmountable. Be it ruggedness, endurance or range, UAS specs requirements were very high. No adapted airmodel toy or feeble foam flying wing could do it. Nor a military grade surveillance UAS was affordable or necessary.

We struggled for a time, shopping around for ideas and development concepts, and adding people with complementary skills to the team.

At the end, in 2011, the one-time solution for a specific contract became a commercial UAS enterprise, and our Yaró UAS family was born. Today we offer four UAS families with 13 model variants, and have several ongoing R&D aeronautics, electronics and software projects, some of them very innovative.

Philosophy

Aerofoundry was born out of need. Ours is an unusual company... we are customer driven, not marketing driven. We define ourselves as an Unmanned Systems Development House for obvious reasons.

Our team is a problem-solving bunch. Give us an unmanned aerial application 'problem' and we will find a solution for you. Our products are born as solutions to our customers' requirements. We are not 'pushers' of foam gadgets using mass marketing campaigns to show them as high-end solutions.

Our customers give us purpose and drive our product strategy.

To make them cost-effective, our UAS solutions follow a modular, building-blocks approach, wher we can integrate and configure 'versions' of our UAS optimized to specific customer's applications.

There is no 'one-product-do-everything' as most of our competitors make believe.

Social responsibility

At Aerofoundry we believe we have a social responsibility beyond business. It is not just doing business with honesty and integrity. We know that our technology is key to social and economic development in a sustainable way, and we work hard to make it accessible (decent costs for products developed with an appropriate technology approach, meaning 'no more, and no less' than what you need).

We do not sell 'bells and whistles', nor attach hidden services (imposing online or otherwise monthly payments to make it work). And we try to keep out of ITAR or export controlled third-party components.

Our products have no strings attached; nor are maintenance quagmires.