[ BERTH ] Ground infrastructure for autonomous drones

Drones that live on site.

Berth is the station a drone comes home to. It lands drones from many makers, charges them, inspects them after every flight and signs every flight record. Every station joins one network, so a fleet flies every day without sending a crew.

Explore the station See the market

PX4ArduPilotMAVLinkDesigned for NDAA-compliant fleets

Station ST-01 · simulated cycle Drag to rotate

StateDocked

Altitude0.0 m

Battery95%

Record—

Airports serve every airplane, from every maker, with the same ground crew. Drones have nothing like that yet. Berth is that ground crew.

[ 01 ] The station

Everything a drone needs between flights, in one box.

Select a part to see what it does. Berth buys commodity parts and builds the pieces that matter: the landing and charging interface, the station controller and the software.

3D model · drag to rotate1 / 8

≤ 700 mmDrone class, v1

± 5 cmLanding target

300–600 WContact charging

10–30 cmUWB positioning near pad

2 TBOn-station storage

LTE · fiberUplink, store and forward

Design targets for the v1 station. Final specifications follow prototype testing.

[ 02 ] More than a dock

A dock charges. A berth runs the operation.

Lands drones from many makers

An open landing and charging interface for PX4 and ArduPilot drones. The station's own camera guides the final approach over MAVLink.

Inspects every aircraft

Cameras in the bay photograph props, arms and landing gear after each flight and flag damage before it turns into a failure.

Keeps the logbook

Every flight is recorded and signed at the station: route, weather, battery and inspection results. Ready for waivers today and BVLOS record keeping tomorrow.

Watches the sky

ADS-B and Remote ID receivers on the mast listen for nearby aircraft and drones, and a weather station decides when it is safe to launch.

Stores and processes data on site

Imagery lands on the station's own drive and is processed at the edge, so smaller drones can carry less computer and results arrive faster.

Navigates without GPS

Each station builds and refreshes a survey-grade map of its site. Drones download it before takeoff and can hold position when GPS is jammed or lost.

[ 02.1 ] The flight record

Proof of every flight, signed where it happened.

The station signs each record with its own key before anything leaves the site. Operators, insurers and auditors can check that nothing was changed later. Inspection photos go to the drone maker only when the operator opts in.

FLIGHT RECORD · ST-01 · #0417Example record

Aircraft: Quadcopter · PX4 v1.15 · open-autopilot profile
Mission: Substation thermal sweep · 18 min · 4.2 km
At launch: Wind 4.1 m/s · no rain · 2 aircraft heard (ADS-B)
Conformance: Max deviation 1.8 m · geofence held
Landing: Error 3.1 cm · centered · charging
Inspection: 4 photos · 1 flag: rear-left prop tip

ed25519 · key st-01 · 7f3a…c91e

[ 03 ] One network

Every site. One schedule, one record.

Each station serves its own site. Together they share one schedule, one set of flight records and one maintenance history. Select a station to see what it is doing.

5Stations online

31Flights today

31Records signed

1Aircraft flagged

Illustrative network. Sites and figures are examples.

[ 04 ] For drone makers

Your drone. Our ground.

Many compliant US drones have no dock of their own, and building one costs a drone maker years. Berth publishes an open landing and charging interface, so a maker can ship a docked product without building the ground side.

Step 1
Fit the kit
Charging contacts and a landing marker on the landing gear. No change to the flight controller.
Step 2
Add a profile
Size, battery chemistry, charge curve and landing offsets, stored as one drone profile.
Step 3
Qualify it
Hundreds of landings in simulation and on a hardware-in-the-loop rig before any field unit ships.
Step 4
Ship it docked
The maker's customers get a station, signed records and fleet software on day one.

v0: contact charging through the landing gear v1: swap-ready power bay Two parts lists: commercial and trusted supply chain

[ 05 ] Why now

The US drone fleet is being rebuilt. Its ground hasn't been.

Supply

Dec 22, 2025

The FCC added foreign-made drones and key components to its Covered List. New models can't get authorization. Most third-party docks were built around those drones, so the new US-built fleet needs a new ground system.

Source: DSLRPros, FCC update

Regulation

Part 108

The FAA's rule for routine flights beyond visual line of sight was proposed in August 2025 and has been in final White House review since July 2026. It rewards automation, record keeping and awareness of nearby aircraft.

Source: DLA Piper, Part 108

Demand

1,000+

The leading US single-brand dock has passed a thousand installations. Buyers already pay for drones that live on site. Each of those docks still serves only one brand of drone.

Source: Robotics Press

[ 06 ] Market

A dock market growing about 20% a year, led by North America.

Docks are still a small share of US drone work. Most inspection flights today need a crew to drive out to the site, and that is the work a station replaces.

Global drone-in-a-box market, $B

Published estimateImplied ~20% CAGR path

Fortune Business Insights via Drone Intelligence: $1.47B (2025), $1.72B (2026), $7.42B (2034). North America held about 42% of 2025 revenue.

Where Berth plays

Global docks, 2026: $1.72B → $7.42B by 2034
North America: ≈ $0.72B at a 42% share
Serviceable, US: $150–250M stations for open-autopilot and dockless fleets
Berth target, 2031: $20–45M revenue · 800–1,500 stations

Square areas are drawn to scale against the global market. The serviceable and target rows are Berth estimates.

Ground a US fleet has to cover

~55,000Transmission substations

617,000+Highway bridges

405,682FAA-certificated remote pilots (Dec 2024)

$4.26B → $7.39BUS commercial drone market, 2026 to 2032

Revenue model

Drag to explore

Stations deployed300

Station price$18,000

Software and records, per station per year$4,000

$5.4MHardware, one time

$1.2MRecurring per year

$0.9MRecurring gross profit at 75%

Hardware is sold once. Software and signed records renew every year for every station in the field, so recurring revenue compounds as the fleet grows.

Deployment plan, cumulative stations

Midpoint targetRange

Parts cost per station	$8–14K → $6–9K at volume
Station price	$16–22K
Software and records	$3–4K / yr · 75%+ margin
Managed plan, per site	$1.2–2K / month

Berth targets and estimates.

How Berth compares

Capability	Single-brand docks	Legacy third-party docks	Berth

Based on public product information, 2022–2026. The Berth column shows design goals.

[ 07 ] Roadmap

From one bench rig to a ground network.

Q4 2026 – Q1 2027
Bench prototype
Precision landing of a PX4 quad to ±5 cm, 20 times in a row, with contact charging and the first signed records.
2027
Alpha stations
3–5 field units at US industrial sites. First drone-maker integration. Inspection cameras and sky awareness online.
2028
Pilot fleet
50+ stations with 2–3 drone makers. Records built for Part 108 operations. Managed plan for sites without a drone team.
2029 +
The network
Swap-ready power bay, shared scheduling across sites, station-built maps for GPS-free flight, and stations as local positioning beacons.

[ 08 ] Contact

Give your drones somewhere to land.

We are talking with drone makers, site operators and investors who want drones flying every day.

Drone makersShip your drone with a dock

Utilities and site operatorsDaily flights without a crew

Inspection service providersOne ground system for a mixed fleet

InvestorsGround infrastructure for autonomy