Aurrigo secures £1.4m grant from CAM Pathfinder and Innovate UK
This article covers Aurrigo International, a mobility startup, being awarded a £1.43m grant to test whether small autonomous vehicles can reduce hazards and routine workload airside at airports. The SENTRY trials aim to assess impacts on staff safety, inspection speed, time savings and emissions and to produce a public report for airports, regulators and suppliers.
Aurrigo International, a mobility startup, has been awarded £1.43 million in a grant funding round to test whether small autonomous vehicles can reduce hazards and routine workload airside at airports. The SENTRY project will deploy Aurrigo’s Auto-Shuttle® vehicles to carry out patrols, perimeter inspections, bird monitoring and runway surface checks, with tests planned at a specialist testbed near Teesside International Airport and at a partner site in Cincinnati, US.
Why it matters
Airside operations involve repetitive, hazardous tasks carried out close to moving aircraft and in poor weather and lighting. If autonomous vehicles can reliably perform inspections and monitoring, airports could reduce staff exposure to risk, spot foreign object debris and surface damage more quickly, and cut the need for disruptive manual runway inspections that delay flights.
The project also aims to quantify staff time savings, detection speed and emissions impacts, producing a public report intended to inform airports, regulators and suppliers about practical use cases for autonomous airside systems.
Inside the product
Aurrigo will adapt its Auto-Shuttle® platform for the SENTRY trials. The company says the vehicles will be used for security patrols, routine perimeter inspections, counting birds and encouraging them to move to safer areas, and inspecting runway and taxiway surfaces for cracks, wear or loose objects.
Aurrigo already supplies Auto-DollyTug® and Auto-Cargo® vehicles to airports; those systems are in use at eight airports globally and serve as examples of how autonomy can support ground-handling and logistics rather than replace human operators. For SENTRY, the company will first operate vehicles in controlled environments, then in real airport conditions at Teesside and in Cincinnati, working with academia and regulators on integration and safety rules.
Who are the investors?
The funding comes through the UK Government’s CAM Pathfinder programme, a £150 million initiative delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade in partnership with Zenzic and Innovate UK. The award is a grant rather than an equity investment, and is subject to Her Majesty’s Government approval.
In the announcement, Mark Cracknell, Programme Director at Zenzic, said:
Today’s announcement builds on the fantastic progress made by CAM Pathfinder so far and puts the UK firmly in the driving seat when it comes to developing and deploying the CAM solutions of tomorrow. From construction to public roads and, airside, these projects have the potential to transform UK businesses, create and safeguard hundreds of jobs and further strengthen the domestic supply chain.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Simon Brewerton, Chief Technology Officer at Aurrigo International plc, said:
Airports are busier and more hazardous than most passengers ever realise. Away from the terminal, staff spend their days walking and driving around parked aircraft, along taxiways and up and down runways, checking for loose debris, chasing away birds, patrolling for security, and inspecting the roadways for damage. Much of this work happens in the dark, in wind and rain, and always with aircraft moving nearby.
In the announcement, Simon Brewerton, Chief Technology Officer at Aurrigo International plc, said:
SENTRY will investigate whether some of that work could be done by small autonomous vehicles that will navigate on their own, following a set of rules agreed in advance with air traffic control. Working with our partners, we are developing the technology and building it into our Auto-Shuttle®, which will firstly be deployed in controlled environments before operating in real airport conditions at Teesside International Airport and at Cincinnati in North America.
In the announcement, Simon Brewerton, Chief Technology Officer at Aurrigo International plc, said:
Our team will measure the changes the autonomous vehicles make, including staff time savings, how quickly issues were spotted and the positive effect on reducing emissions. The finding will be written up in a public report that will be shared with airports, regulators and the wider sector, providing a best practice use case for adopting more autonomous vehicles. Aurrigo’s technology is not about replacing people, it is about taking the cold, repetitive, three-in-the-morning jobs off the roster. It will free-up experienced staff for the work that genuinely needs human judgement and gives airports a practical way to raise their safety standards.
The bigger picture
SENTRY sits within a wider push to commercialise connected and autonomous mobility (CAM) in the UK. The CAM Pathfinder programme aims to fund applied projects that demonstrate safety, economic and supply chain benefits across sectors including construction, roads and airside operations. Successful demonstrations could accelerate regulatory frameworks and create export opportunities for UK engineering and systems integrators.
Aurrigo’s work also highlights the need for close collaboration between vendors, academia and regulators; the involvement of Warwick Manufacturing Group and the Civil Aviation Authority is intended to help align technical development with operational and safety requirements.
The outcome of SENTRY will be watched by airport operators and mobility investors across Europe and North America as they weigh the trade-offs between labour, safety and automation. If the trials produce clear, publishable evidence of safety gains and operating efficiencies, more airports may open testing opportunities and procurement paths for similar systems.
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