Case Study: Apellix achieves safer, faster aerial inspections and accelerated development with Ubuntu

Apellix engineers safer work environments with Ubuntu powered aerial robotics

Apellix is a Florida‑based aerial robotics company that develops computer‑controlled drones to replace hazardous, elevated inspection and maintenance tasks—such as measuring paint and wall thickness on U.S. Navy ships and industrial flare stacks. Manual inspections are time‑consuming, costly (often exceeding $100,000 per coat on warships) and put workers at risk, while Apellix’s autonomous docking capability must achieve centimeter‑level precision to avoid crashes.

To solve this, Apellix built its systems on Ubuntu Server (with plans for Ubuntu Core), leveraging its stability, broad package support and consistent dev/production environment to accelerate development and simplify integration. The result: development time for initial functionality was cut roughly in half, and the drones now deliver more than 100 dry film thickness readings per hour, operate to 100 m and in winds up to 12 knots—making inspections faster, safer and easier to scale across maritime, energy and infrastructure markets.

Apellix

Robert Dahlstrom

Founder and Chief Executive Officer