AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) has acquired the intelligent systems group of Progeny Systems through a $30 million cash transaction as part of efforts to drive autonomy and artificial intelligence technology development work and expand robotic systems engineering support for defense and commercial clients.
AeroVironment said Wednesday it will merge ISG with its MacCready Works Advanced Solutions team and make an additional payment of up to $6 million to Progeny Systems over three years if the acquired group meets specific performance targets.
ISG is headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, and has 40 employees focused on conducting research and developing autonomy, active perception and machine learning capabilities for intelligence community and Department of Defense customers. The group was founded in 2006 and posted more than $10 million in revenue for fiscal year 2020.
Wahid Nawabi, president and CEO of AeroVironment, said ISG has developed AI technologies for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Special Operations Command and other U.S. government clients and the groupâs computer vision and machine learning capabilities complement AeroVironmentâs unmanned systems portfolio.
âAcquiring ISG will enhance the intelligence of our growing, multi-domain robotic systems portfolio, increase customer-funded research and development revenue and deepen our relationships with strategically important customers,â Nawabi said.
âDelivering higher levels of intelligence and autonomy will improve the ability of our solutions to achieve customer mission objectives in permissive and anti-access/area-denied (A2/AD) environments through onboard processing, exploitation and dissemination (PED) without requiring radio communication.â
AeroVironment will operate the ISG facility in Virginia as its new AI Innovation Center.
The transaction came days after AeroVironment announced that it closed its acquisition of Arcturus UAV for $405 million in cash and stock.
