Archer Expands Physical AI Push With Boeing Assets in Autonomous Flight

While physical AI is still rolling out in factories and warehouses, it’s making its way into another industry that’s just as critical: aerospace and defence. Archer Aviation will seek to improve its footprint in this area with an announced acquisition of three companies from Boeing related to autonomous aircraft, unmanned systems and airspace management.

The proposed acquisition would add Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid to Archer’s portfolio, a combination of expertise in autonomy, unmanned aircraft systems and automated airspace management expertise with Archer’s ZEE AI platform.

The move has more than just a symbolic meaning of the addition of new aerospace technologies. Physical AI is becoming more and more about enabling machines to sense and perceive their environment, make decisions and act in complex environments with little human involvement. The sector of aircraft and defence systems is a very demanding application, and that’s why this sector is so important.

Wisk has experience in AEW&L and Insitu has capabilities in UAS. Meanwhile, SkyGrid concentrates on handling the growing complexity and automation of airspace. Combining them all may provide Archer with a more expansive technology platform that includes the plane, autonomous flight and the system to manage multiple systems in the air.

The transfer is also indicative of a greater trend in the aerospace industry. AI has been applied more and more to autonomous navigation, mission planning, sensing, fleet coordination and airspace management and electric aircraft offer new possibilities for automated mobility.

It’s another sign that physical AI is trending from demonstrations to integrated systems for actual operational environments for the industrial and defence sectors. The larger question now is how quickly these technologies can go from their individual autonomous ability to form connected ecosystems of machines that can sense, decide and act together.