Autonomous Air Systems
28.66° N · 77.45° E — Ghaziabad

Indigenously designed and manufactured UAV platforms for defence, government, and precision industry.

Autonomous aircapability,built in India.

06Autonomous platforms
TRL 6Demonstrated, not simulated
L1–L5Native stack layers
0Chinese components
VAS-01 · Atlas Logistics
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01The Gap

India can design the mission.
The supply chain is the front line.

Demand has never been higher — or more exposed. The platforms that win tomorrow's contracts must be traceable to the silicon. That is the gap Vortex was built to close.

₹40k Cr

Indian UAV procurement budget unlocked post-Operation Sindoor — the largest indigenous air-systems push in a generation.

Source · MoD · 2025
50k

The Army's projected annual small-UAV demand — against a supply base still dependent on foreign sub-systems.

Source · Army Design Bureau
71%

Type-Certification rejection rate for agri-drones — most fail on traceable, compliant, indigenous supply chains.

Source · DGCA · NTH
02The Thesis

We don't assemble drones. We engineer the whole stack — airframe, flight control, edge AI, and ground software under one roof, on Indian soil, with zero foreign dependency. Silicon to sky.

See how the stack is built →
03The Stack

Five layers.
One native system.

Every layer is developed in-house — so security, performance, and upgrades stay in Vortex's control, never a vendor's. This is the moat.

L1
Operational
Airframe Engineering

Indigenous mechanical design — T700 CF structures, motor-arm geometry, payload integration, and thermal management for high-altitude and hot-humid environments.

  • T700 Carbon Fibre composite structures
  • Hex / Octo / Fixed-wing architectures
  • Fold-arm rapid deploy design
  • Custom motor mounts (PA12-CF printed)
L2
Operational
Flight Control Stack

ArduPilot / PX4-based open-source flight control, hardened and customised. Cube Orange Plus with redundant IMUs. SIYI MK15 + HM30 telemetry integration.

  • Cube Orange Plus autopilot
  • ArduCopter / ArduPlane custom builds
  • SIYI MK15 RC + HM30 video link
  • S.Bus pass-through integration
L3
In integration
Onboard AI / ML

Edge inference for real-time target detection, classification, tracking, and terrain-relative navigation. Runs on-drone without cloud connectivity — critical for GPS-denied and comms-jammed environments.

  • YOLOv8 / RT-DETR object detection
  • Multi-target tracking (ByteTrack)
  • Terrain-relative nav (optical flow)
  • Edge inference (Jetson Orin / Nano)
L4
In development
Ground Control Software

Vortex Cloud GCS — India's answer to DJI Flight Hub. Hardware-agnostic fleet management with NPNT compliance, autonomous mission planning, and real-time AI analytics. Indian data residency.

  • FastAPI backend (Python)
  • Real-time telemetry dashboard
  • Mission planner + waypoint editor
  • Multi-fleet coordination
L5
Prototype
Swarm Coordination

Native swarm protocol built into the Vortex command stack — not a third-party overlay. Single-operator control of 10–15 drones with coordinated mission logic, formation flight, and distributed sensing.

  • UWB-based relative positioning
  • MAVLink multi-vehicle routing
  • Collision avoidance mesh
  • Scripted + live-adaptive modes
04The Platforms

Six platforms.
Every mission profile.

One avionics stack, six airframes. Rapid deployment and unified training across defence, enterprise, and agriculture.

View full catalog →
Defence & Strike03 platforms · MoD-exempt
VAS-04SentinelMilitary ISR · High-Altitude CapableMilitary ISR5,000m+ · Man-portable→VAS-05Sentinel-MLoitering Munition · Offensive CapabilityLoitering munitionRestricted · NDA→VAS-06HornetSwarm System · Multi-Unit CoordinationSwarm coordination10–15 unit · UWB mesh→
Industry & Civil03 platforms · GeM-listed
VAS-03RangerEnterprise Intelligence · Mapping + SurveillanceEnterprise mapping & ISRSurvey · Persistent ISR→VAS-01AtlasHeavy-Lift Logistics · HexacopterHeavy-lift logisticsResupply · Medevac→VAS-02Atlas - AgPrecision Agriculture · Spraying + SeedingPrecision agriculture10–16L · ~1 ac/min→
05The Proof

Not a render.
Built to be checked.

Flight-proven hardware, documented to the standard of entities that expect to audit it — MoD due diligence, export review, supply-chain inspection.

TRL 6All six platforms
0Chinese components
70%Made in India
DPIITRecognised startup
iDEX2026 applicant
GeMRegistered vendor
01
Zero-compromise supply chain

Every BOM line item is verified against our Chinese-component exclusion policy before procurement approval. No exceptions. No legacy exemptions.

02
TRL honesty

We do not ship platforms rated beyond their demonstrated capability. TRL 6 means TRL 6 — prototype demonstrated in relevant environment. Not a slide. Not a simulation.

03
Indian data sovereignty

Our GCS infrastructure, telemetry logging, and AI inference run on Indian servers or on-vehicle. No operational data leaves Indian jurisdiction.

04
Dual-use by design

Every civil platform is engineered with defence-grade component tolerance. The delta between civil and military configuration is firmware and payload — not a different drone.

05
Open to scrutiny

MoD due diligence, export control review, supply chain audit — we welcome it. Our documentation is maintained to the standard of entities that expect to be checked.

06
Operators before investors

We build for the person running the mission, not the person reading the quarterly report. Performance in the field is the only metric that earns the next contract.

06The Journey

Student team to
drone company. One year.

Every subsystem earned its TRL-6 rating in the field, not the lab — debugged at competitions across North India before it ever became a product.

IROC-U 2025
Team formed · ISRO challenge accepted

Core team assembles at AKGEC Ghaziabad for ISRO's IROC-U 2025 competition. First autonomous drone system designed and developed from scratch — GPS-denied flight in indoor environments using optical flow and onboard compute. No off-the-shelf frames, no shortcuts.

SIH 2025
Smart India Hackathon · Atlas born

VAS-01 Atlas heavy-lift hexacopter conceived and built for Smart India Hackathon 2025. First T700 CF airframe, fold-arm stowage, and 25 kg+ payload architecture. Atlas goes from idea to flying prototype on a hackathon timeline.

NIDAR 2025
Platform family expands · Atlas Ag, Sentinel, Ranger

NIDAR 2025 drives rapid platform development. Atlas Ag precision agriculture variant, VAS-04 Sentinel military ISR, and VAS-03 Ranger enterprise mapping all developed and flown. Core flight stack, SIYI MK15, and Cube Orange Plus integration validated across all three.

Late 2025
Circuit of local competitions · Stack hardened

Multiple regional competitions across North India. Each event stress-tests a different subsystem — GPS-denied nav, payload release, autonomous waypoint missions. Failures debugged in the field, not the lab. The platform stack earns its TRL 6 rating the hard way.

IROC-U 2026
Full cycle complete · Startup incorporated

Return to IROC-U closes the loop — one full year from student competition team to registered drone startup. Vortex Autonomous Systems Pvt. Ltd. incorporated. DPIIT startup recognition. Six platforms at TRL 6. iDEX Open Challenge application filed.

2026 →
Autonomous systems company · Product and service launch

Competition team becomes product company. Atlas Ag Type Certification at NTH Ghaziabad. Sentinel and Hornet defence trials. Vortex Cloud GCS SaaS launch. Drone-as-a-Service rollout for agriculture and enterprise. Seed funding round target. 50-unit production capacity.

VAS-01 Atlas25 kg payload · 30 min endurance · Dual-use certified→ iDEX Open Challenge applicant · Deadline 31 March 2026→ DGCA Medium Category · VortexDelta firmware · Zero Chinese components→ TRL 6 across all six platforms · Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh · India→ 70% Made in India · NTH Ghaziabad TC pathway activeVAS-06 Hornet10-drone swarm · Single-operator control→ iDEX · DRDO TDF · GeM portal registered→ VortexDelta firmware · ArduCopter custom stack · AI edge inference→ SIYI MK15 · Cube Orange Plus · No cloud dependencyVAS-01 Atlas25 kg payload · 30 min endurance · Dual-use certified→ iDEX Open Challenge applicant · Deadline 31 March 2026→ DGCA Medium Category · VortexDelta firmware · Zero Chinese components→ TRL 6 across all six platforms · Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh · India→ 70% Made in India · NTH Ghaziabad TC pathway activeVAS-06 Hornet10-drone swarm · Single-operator control→ iDEX · DRDO TDF · GeM portal registered→ VortexDelta firmware · ArduCopter custom stack · AI edge inference→ SIYI MK15 · Cube Orange Plus · No cloud dependency
07Engage

Bring us the mission.

Whether you procure for defence or scale enterprise operations, you talk to the engineers who built the stack — not a sales layer.

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