HP, Alpine Eagle, ZenaTech push drone tech further

The drone market is growing rapidly, and manufacturers and designers are creating innovative technologies to support that growth.

Many of these technologies were on display at AUVSI Xponential 2025 in Houston last month.

Moving cargo While many drones in the cargo industry are used to carry cargo, some perform other tasks. Toronto-based ZenaTech’s ZenaDrone IQ Nano scans inventory at warehouses , Justin Schmitz, director of marketing at ZenaTech, told Cargo Facts .

The 10-inch-by-10-inch IQ Nano can perform bar code or RFID scanning, facility maintenance inspections, security monitoring and 3D mapping. The drone weighs 1.5 kilograms and has a flight time of twenty minutes.

While the IQ Nano is controlled by remote, the larger, commercial ZenaDrone 1000 is autonomous, Schmitz said.

[caption id="attachment_57289227" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] ZenaTech’s ZenaDrone 1000 has a payload capacity of 40 kilograms. (Photo/Cargo Facts)[/caption] The company has considered using the ZenaDrone 1000 for moving medical supplies across “hostile landscapes,” he said.

“With a payload capacity of 40 kilos, that's a lot of cargo you can haul with this drone,” Schmitz said.

3D printing for drones Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech giant HP displayed its HP Additive Manufacturing Solutions product, which enables manufacturers to 3D-print drone parts.

“We can make very, very lightweight [uncrewed air vehicles],” Gino Balistreri, new segments leader for HP 3D Printing, told Cargo Facts .

He pointed to a 2-meter-by-2-meter drone that, despite being printed at 0.8-millimeter thickness, weighs less than 5 pounds and is still durable.

[caption id="attachment_57289226" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] This 2-meter-by-2-meter drone, weighing less than 5 pounds, was printed in several pieces that were then assembled. (Photo/Cargo Facts)[/caption] “We're not just injection molding, where you're stamping and subtracting. We're building from the inside,” Balistreri said. “It's kind of an incredible thing that you can build something that's lighter and stronger through topology optimization. That's like the biggest advantage of additive.”

HP uses its proprietary Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) tech, which enables the production of functional prototypes and end-use parts.

Brian Ingold, head of go-to-market solutions at HP, estimated that HP Additive Manufacturing Solutions has about 100 customers. Customers range from people who own MJF machines to those using HP’s service bureaus that print the parts for them, Ingold said.

“We have customers that we've never even met,” Ingold said. “We have many contract manufacturers and service bureaus that do MJF that. We'll walk around the show this week, and we'll see somebody that'll have an MJF part and we'll go introduce ourselves.”

Drones using HP’s 3D printing technology include:

BushRanger 2M V1, which debuted at the conference, by The Eye Above; Athera by Vecros; XperDron by Serveo; SkyLite by Rotor Riot; Hunter by UAV Works; Helyx by Sigma Ingeneria; and Buddy by Framework Robotics. Neutralizing hostile drones Not all technology focuses on getting drones in the air — some focus on shooting them down.

San Francisco-based airspace security technology company Dedrone recorded 1.19 million illegal drone flights in 2024 within its network of more than fifty U.S. cities. Drones can be especially problematic when controlled by a person intending harm or when flown too close to other aircraft .

Munich-based Alpine Eagle’s solution is the Sentinel fixed-wing drone equipped with an interceptor that can destroy unwanted drones.

[caption id="attachment_57289225" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Alpine Eagle’s Sentinel fixed-wing drone can destroy hostile drones with an interceptor. (Courtesy/Alpine Eagle)[/caption] Many industries are using drones for services including cargo, mapping, security and reconnaissance, Benji Pauly, business development manager at Alpine Eagle, told Cargo Facts .

“So, what's the next problem?” he said. “You're going to have unlimited drones, but what are the systems that can detect it? Well, you can have a huge airborne radar system like for planes, but then they're using a $100 million system to defeat a $1,000 drone or just to know where it is.”

Launched at Xponential, the interceptor relies on Sentinel’s machine learning, sensors and computer vision to detect, classify and destroy hostile drones.

“We mount the interceptor on the drone, and that gives us 120 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees vertically to find other drones in the air,” Pauly said.

To ensure full visibility, Sentinel interceptors are best flown in a swarm, he said. Four drones can monitor and clear an area of about 10 square kilometers.

“Something like a DJI mini, we can detect 1 kilometer away,” Pauly said. “Something like big, fixed-wing surveillance drones, we can detect maybe 4 kilometers away.

“Maybe you have a cargo route that's always flying the same direction,” he said. “You don't want drones interfering with that. You may want to destroy it. We give you that option.”

This tech is not available to the public. Alpine Eagle’s starting client is the Germany army and future clients must have certain licenses and approvals.

HP, Alpine Eagle, ZenaTech push drone tech further

AUVSI Xponential 2025

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