Meet the Family of Flying Robots Serving the Needs of Industries Our Civilization Relies On

In 2023, we announced the X10, the first mid-size quadcopter built around AI and Skydio Autonomy expressly for the needs of those responsible for our public safety, critical infrastructure, and national security. Since then, it has performed over 500,000 customer missions, with life-saving and efficiency-driving impact all over the world.

In 2024, we announced the next step in our autonomy vision with Dock for X10. Pre-positioning remotely operated X10s where the work happens has enabled hundreds of organizations to get highly valuable intelligence at the exact moment they need it to make the best data-driven decisions. Emergency calls to 911 can now respond in less than one minute, streaming valuable situational awareness to the first responders en route. Critical infrastructure operators get eyes on a problematic asset without waiting hours or even days to roll a crew, preventing potential outages and costly malfunctions. Militaries are enhancing force protection and rapid response capabilities with Docked X10s providing widespread coverage for vast perimeters.

The impact X10 and Dock have had is nothing short of extraordinary. And it continues to grow rapidly every day, as evidenced by a steady stream of successful missions posted by our customers on social media and featured in the news. But the X10 mid-size quadcopter, as valuable as it is, is not suited for every mission. Its practical battery capacity of ~30-32 flight minutes means it typically operates within a radius of 3 miles or less. Although quite capable of flying indoors, at 31” x 26”, it is not well-suited for flight in small, confined spaces or entering through windows and doorways.

To meet the needs of indoor and long-distance missions, we are announcing two new flying robots to the Skydio family.

Skydio R10. The first indoor drone in the U.S. that delivers the ease of use and low operational cost of consumer drones, combined with the onboard lighting, communications, and cloud integrations that public safety missions demand.

Skydio F10. The first fixed-wing drone designed around an innovative new architecture, Robotic Takeoff and Landing (RTOL).

R10: Bringing Drone as First Responder Inside

Drone as First Responder (DFR) is arguably the fastest-growing use case for drone adoption in the U.S. today. Every week, public safety agencies across the country are launching DFR programs in their communities, sending Dock-based X10s directly to calls for service. The impacts on response time, cleared calls, and safety for both the officer and the community have been tremendous.

But DFR has largely been thought of as an outdoor operation. X10s typically respond to calls at 150 feet as the crow flies, ideal for getting on scene quickly. And while X10 can drop down to nearly ground level and can fly inside buildings, it generally remains an outside operation. Once a subject or victim is inside a structure (e.g., home, commercial building), the officers remain blind to what awaits them, presenting a large safety risk to all involved. Just as X10 provides real-time situational awareness for greater safety outdoors, a need exists for the same level of intelligence indoors.

Indoor drones can be found in public safety and other sectors; a few companies specializing in drones for SWAT or tactical operations have launched over the past few years. Companies specializing in confined space inspections, important for critical infrastructure organizations, also exist.

Despite all this specialized equipment, the type of drones actually used most in these industries is small, consumer models, outnumbering specialized drones by an order of magnitude. Why is that?

It turns out that features like ease of use, low overall cost of operation, high durability, and small size are valued far more than many of the niche, specialized capabilities. To make a consumer drone effective for public safety missions, people are hacking together after-market lights and speakers, wiring together multiple accessories in order to share media with a person beyond the pilot, and manually moving files around from SD Card to file storage systems.

For any high-stakes mission, the intelligence may be worth all the extra effort. But it also means it’s not used often. Indoor drone-delivered intelligence falls within the purview of a small number of highly trained pilots. Typically, these reside on specialized units, such as SWAT or Crisis Response Teams.

We believe indoor intelligence should be available every single time it is required. No officer or inspector should walk blindly into a potentially dangerous – even life-threatening – situation.

Enter R10.

Skydio R10 is the first indoor drone in the U.S. that delivers the ease-of-use and low operational cost of consumer drones, combined with the onboard lighting, communications, and cloud integrations that public safety operators demand.

At just 10” x 10” and 1.7 lbs., R10 is small enough to ride in the trunk of a patrol vehicle. It’s built tough, with composite materials and protective blade guards, yet light and attritable enough to be flown aggressively without fear of losing an expensive asset. Thanks to Skydio Autonomy, including NightSense zero-light obstacle avoidance and automated one-click Return-to-Home, anybody—even those with minimal drone experience—can confidently clear rooms, hallways, vehicles, and other confined spaces.

The R10 comes standard with the features that matter most to public safety:

• Bright onboard lighting for dark environments
• Two-way audio communications for de-escalation or negotiation
• Multi-hour perch capability for extended overwatch
• Seamless live streaming to provide a common operating picture across responding officers
• Automatic evidence upload directly into digital evidence systems—no SD cards, no manual tagging

The R10 is not a standalone product—it’s part of the Skydio Drone as First Responder ecosystem. It works with the same controller as the X10, runs in the same Remote Ops and DFR Command software, and integrates with CAD, Fusus, and evidence management workflows.

With 5G/LTE and Connect Fusion built in, the R10 ensures robust video and connectivity from launch to landing. Local officers can launch the drone, then hand it off to a remote pilot in a Real Time Crime Center, giving agencies a force multiplier without additional headcount.

Patrol-Led DFR Becomes a Practical Reality

The arrival of R10 extends DFR from specialized drone teams into the everyday patrol unit. A burglary alarm at night, a domestic disturbance in a residence, or a high-risk vehicle stop—officers can now send R10 in first, keeping themselves safe while gathering real-time intelligence. Together, X10 and R10 complement each other:

• X10 provides outdoor overwatch, long flight duration, and multi-mile subject tracking.
• R10 provides indoor reconnaissance, close-range navigation, and rapid situational awareness.

In practice, this pairing reshapes incident response. Imagine a commercial burglary: an X10 launches from a dock, providing overwatch and monitoring exits. Responding officers deploy an R10 from their patrol vehicle to clear the interior. The result: officers remain safe, threats are identified early, and tactics are more effective.

With the launch of R10, patrol officers now have access to the same level of intelligence and safety once reserved for specialized teams. By bridging the gap between consumer drones and tactical systems, R10 ensures that every officer can have a drone at their side—ready to clear a building, gather intelligence, and keep them one step ahead of danger.

Capable of more than Public Safety

While initially designed for public safety, the R10’s 1” wide sensor, onboard lighting, 180° gimbal pitch, and protective frame make it equally valuable in other environments, such as inspections of confined spaces.

R10 will be available for early access customers in fall 2025, with general availability targeting the first half of 2026.

F10: Fully Autonomous Fixed Wing

We know that putting camera sensors in the most important places at the most important times can deliver better information and change outcomes. When these outcomes are associated with the industries our civilization relies on, the impact can very much be the difference between life and death. But space and distance have been a massive barrier to achieving this. In rural counties, it may take deputies 45 minutes to respond to an emergency. Our nation’s grid has transmission lines that span a few miles or hundreds of miles. High-speed vehicle pursuits are extremely dangerous to bystanders. So much so that most law enforcement agencies have policies disallowing them, yet nobody wants to see criminals escape justice.

Enter F10.

F10 is a fixed-wing drone under development. It is targeted to achieve a speed of greater than 80mph and a flight time of more than 90 minutes. This extends the radius of coverage to dozens of miles. It is ideally suited for Drone as First Responder in rural areas, high-speed pursuits, long linear inspections, and so much more.

The key to F10 is not the creation of a fixed-wing drone. It is enabling organizations to use it without scaling the number of people required to operate it. Since our founding in 2014, we have bet big on Autonomy. This is why our quadcopters are very easy to fly, capable of autonomous flight, and difficult to crash. This is why we built Dock for X10 - fully autonomous operation with no need for an operator to be present. And this is why we are building an automatic launch and landing platform inside a Dock for F10.

F10 is targeted for use by early access customers in the first half of 2026.

A Family of Flying Robots Working Together on One Common Platform

We could not be more excited about this time in history. AI, robotics, and aviation are coming together to serve the needs of our civilization. To keep our communities safe, our lights on, and our nation secure. This is all happening here in America. Many people have said America is incapable of aerospace competitiveness. Historically, that has been a very bad bet (see Wright Brothers, NASA, SpaceX, and so many more examples). And we’re more motivated than ever to prove that true.