Auterion
Auterion makes AuterionOS, a vendor-agnostic drone operating system built on PX4 lineage, now fielding AI swarm and strike-kit software for NATO and Ukrainian forces.
Background
Lorenz Meier and Kevin Sartori founded Auterion in Zurich in 2017, drawing directly on Meier's prior work as the principal author of the PX4 open-source autopilot project.
The company has since relocated its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, positioning itself inside the U.S. defense procurement orbit while retaining Swiss engineering roots.
The core product is AuterionOS, an open, vendor-agnostic operating system for autonomous drones and robots that handles fleet management, mission planning, and autonomy functions across heterogeneous hardware.
The companion Skynode line provides the edge-computing mission-computer hardware that runs AuterionOS on airframes. The company has layered AI-enabled swarming and targeting software on top of that base, culminating in the strike-kit packages now being delivered to Ukraine.
Auterion goes to market as a software and hardware module supplier to drone manufacturers, defense primes, and government customers rather than building its own airframes.
The company currently employs more than 100 people globally. Partnerships with Rheinmetall and Lockheed Martin signal a deliberate move up the defense prime supply chain.