Find it.
Pick it. Fly.
Foreign-object detection across runway, taxiway, apron. Three deployment modes — mobile vehicle, fixed airside poles, stand-mounted units — one dispatcher console. 1–2 cm, with coordinates.
A small object,
an expensive outcome.
A nut, a fastener, a piece of tyre at take-off speed costs more than the airport will ever recover. Industry estimate: ~US $12B/year, paid mostly by airlines.
From close-and-sweep
to find-and-fix.
- Scheduled sweeps at shift boundaries — 3–4 a day.
- Crews walk the runway — slow, eyes-on-asphalt for 15–30 minutes.
- Small objects missed — fasteners, fragments, items in shadow.
- No coordinates — crews search the surface, not the spot.
- Continuous detection — 24/7, day, night, all weather windows.
- Real-time alert with exact coordinates the moment an object is detected.
- Targeted pickup, evidence retained for safety review.
- Runway re-opens in minutes, not the half-hour the sweep would have cost.
The device.
Multi-spectral camera array, sealed for rain, dust, monsoon. Lens stack tuned for runway-grade detection distances.
Complementary sensors — radar where appropriate, thermal where dawn/dusk hurts the camera. Fused signal beats any one modality on the 1–2 cm objects.
Edge box mounted with the device. Detection happens locally in milliseconds. Tower outage doesn't blind the runway. One-way uplink only.
Three ways to deploy.
One airfield covered.
Start where the pain is sharpest, layer the rest later. All three feed one dispatcher console, one audit trail.
The mobile unit.
Ops vehicle with the full sensor stack. Replaces the human walking sweep — 1–2 cm detection, no civils, no commissioning.
The fixed airside unit.
Poles along the runway and at every taxiway intersection. 24/7, all-weather. Sees what arrives at minute 41, not at the next walking sweep.
The apron stand unit.
Looks down at the stand box. Catches the baggage tag, cargo strap, dropped tool before pushback clearance.
Aerodrome topology.
Mobile · MV-01
Forward 120° sweep cone · range 200 m · 25 km/h cruise on TWY A
Fixed · runway pole (×6)
Alternating sides every ~640 m · Ø 600 m detection · ellipses overlap into a continuous stripe
Fixed · stand-mount (×3)
120° fan over the parking position · live during turn · spill + small-object alerts
OPS · 1 console
Every sensor → one dispatcher · alert + GPS + image evidence
What AeroFOD detects.
Detection thresholds tuned per airport during commissioning.
From detection to pickup,
in under a minute.
The device sees.
Multi-modal fusion confirms classification. Local inference. Sub-second.
Coordinates fixed.
Latitude, longitude, runway designator, distance from threshold.
Safety dashboard.
Pushed to the safety dashboard, ramp supervisor's radio, tower view. SLA timer starts.
Targeted retrieval.
Safety vehicle drives to the coordinates, retrieves, photographs, clears. Tower releases.
Two parties.
One device.
The airline.
Each strike paid in engine, belly, tyre repair, plus propagated delay.
- Engine ingestion — single most expensive damage class.
- Delay propagation across the network when one tail goes AOG.
- Insurance + writedown exposure on aircraft hulls.
The airport.
Each close-and-sweep is movements you can't run and slots you can't sell.
- Runway closure time — direct slot-revenue loss.
- Regulator-reportable events — ICAO Annex 14, DGCA.
- Reputational impact when a strike makes the news.
Sold to airports; the case is co-funded by airline pain. Many engagements involve airline operators sponsoring the deployment.
Built to the standards
that govern the runway.
Common questions.
Do I have to start with civils and poles?
No. Most airports start with the mobile sensor vehicle — no civils, no commissioning lag. Fixed units layer in once value is proven.
How do you decide which mode fits us?
Site survey, three questions: where's your worst FOD pain, what's your CAPEX this cycle, which surfaces need watching. Output is a phased plan.
Does it work at night and in heavy weather?
Yes. 24/7 — night, monsoon, dust, fog. Performance characterised per condition during commissioning.
Sold standalone or with ATOMS?
Standalone. With ATOMS, FOD events feed the shared operational record.
Start where the pain is sharpest.
Mobile sensor vehicle on day one. Fixed runway and taxiway poles next cycle. Apron stand units on AeroGround optics. Three modes, one console, one audit trail.
Bring AeroFOD
to your airfield.
A 30-minute walkthrough on your current sweep cadence and top safety events.