The Business of Drone Autonomy: Hardware, Defense, and AI | Stefan Hrabar, Emesent

Emesent's GPS-denied LiDAR autonomy tech, born in mining, is pivoting toward defense ISR as its biggest growth wildcard.

• HoverMap product: Emesent's flagship LiDAR+SLAM system (~3.5 lbs) mounts on drones, UGVs, backpacks, or handheld rigs, mapping GPS-denied environments like mines, tunnels, and buildings.
• Dual-use trajectory: Started in underground mining (survey/mapping) and has expanded into defense ISR (not offensive autonomy), battle-damage assessment, port/vessel scanning for the U.S. Navy, and search-and-rescue.

Themes, sentiment and reasons are AI-written paraphrases, checked so they never quote an episode. They may contain errors. Not investment advice. Episodes remain the property of their creators.