The verified answer
As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies Apellix: 2 models, 1 deployment across 1 region, 1 active incident. 1 source back the record.
Overview
Apellix is a Jacksonville, Florida-based company that designs and manufactures autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray painting, and NDT Inspection. Founded in 2014, the company's tethered drone systems perform hazardous tasks at height — cleaning buildings, applying coatings, and conducting structural inspections — keeping workers safely on the ground.
Apellix drones are deployed in 20+ countries and its B2 Power Wash drone is the only cleaning drone certified by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 1 deployment on file
- Active incidents
- 1 incident on file
Key facts
Robot
Technology
Customers
Product Name
Revenue
Products
Price
CEO
Founded
Key products
DoD certification
Countries deployed
Revenue per unit
U.S. Army partnership
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (2)
View all models →Current platform
Apellix B2 Power Wash
The Apellix B2 Power & Soft Wash Drone delivers up to 4,000 PSI pressure washing at heights up to 195 feet. It is the only cleaning drone certified by the U.S. Department of Defense, used for cleaning buildings, windows, solar panels, and industrial structures.
Current platform
Spray Painting Drone
Apellix's Spray Painting Drone is a semi-autonomous aerial system for spray-painting and coating tall structures (storage tanks, bridges, ships); it uses proprietary distance-hold, speed-control, and perpendicular-alignment tech and is NDAA-compliant, deployed by DOTs, federal contractors, and the US Army.
Partnerships
Every company Apellix has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1AkzoNobel1× joint
- 2U.S. Army1× joint
Most recent
- with U.S. Armyoperating
- with AkzoNobeloperating
Apellix on the deployment map
View the global map1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Jan 2014. Explore where Apellix's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full Apellix deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (2)
- Robert Dahlstrom Founder & CEOsecondary-verified
- Phyl Schnyder Co-Foundersecondary-verified
Founders (2)
- Robert Dahlstromcofounder
- Phyl Schnydercofounder
Safety record
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Incidents affecting Apellix (1)
Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Operator customers (1)
- Apellix1 deployment
Recent coverage
Apellix in third-party press
Peers
99 peers across 1 segment. Every Apellix competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
drone(99)
57 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 1809.2177305910177) · leader Anduril Industries at 3057%
- AEVEX Aerospacedirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- ATL Global Holding AGdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Aereodirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AeroVironmentdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AgXeeddirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AirForestrydirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- aggregator_estimate
- Lifecycle stage
- early
- Counterparty risk class
- high
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
2 total · 2 operating
Every company Apellix has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- with U.S. Armyoperating
- with AkzoNobeloperating
Most-frequent partners
- 1AkzoNobel1× joint
- 2U.S. Army1× joint
All 2 partnerships
open in the atlas →- Apellix x U.S. Army (CBRN Decontamination)withU.S. Armydevelopment2022-01-01operating
- Apellix x AkzoNobel (Spray Painting Drone)withAkzoNobeldevelopment2019-10-01operating
Timeline
Every recorded move in Apellix’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
PartnershipApellix x U.S. Army (CBRN Decontamination)
2022-01-01Apellix partners with the U.S. Army on Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) decontamination using autonomous drone systems, serving as a force multiplier by removing personnel from contaminated zones.
PartnershipApellix x AkzoNobel (Spray Painting Drone)
2019-10-01Apellix and AkzoNobel collaborate on a computer-controlled spray painting drone, with AkzoNobel providing coating expertise and financing development. Apellix won the partnership in the 2019 Paint the Future global startup challenge.
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 24, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Incident recordedFeb 20, 2024
Apellix B1 washing drone operator seriously injured while manually disarming drone after...
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2014
Apellix B2 Power Wash at Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is Apellix?
What does Apellix make?
Who competes with Apellix?
Who is the CEO of Apellix?
Where is Apellix headquartered?
Where does Apellix operate robots?
How many robots has Apellix deployed?
Is Apellix a top robotics company?
When was Apellix founded?
Are there any incidents involving Apellix?
Is Apellix safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Apellix.Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Roborock20 models
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Apellix from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
What Is the Best Commercial Cleaning Drone in 2026? Specs, Prices, and a Head-to-Head Comparison
Sponsored Content by Appelix. Executive Summary: Purpose: This evaluation analyzes commercial exterior cleaning drones available in August 2026 — comparing Apellix, Lucid Bots,…
Jacksonville's Apellix lands defense contracts with industrial drones
Apellix secures defense contracts using industrial drones, with clients including the University of Florida, the city of Seattle, and the Department of Defense.
Apellix: Innovation Born from Experience
Profile of Apellix founder Bob Dahlstrom and the company's evolution from garage experiments to serving the DoD, with drones deployed in 20+ countries.
Apellix Launches Spray-Painting Drone Program
Apellix launches a beta program for its semi-autonomous spray painting drone, offering proprietary distance-hold and perpendicular alignment technology for coating applications.
Apellix: Autonomous Industrial Drones
Apellix builds American-made autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray painting, and NDT inspection, replacing scaffolding and rope access for industrial cleaning and…
New autonomous drone is a smarter way to apply paint
AkzoNobel and Apellix collaborate on a computer-controlled spray painting drone, with Apellix winning the 2019 Paint the Future global startup challenge.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/apellix.md
- RSS feed: /companies/apellix/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/6d1d373f-bf5d-4a93-80fa-f3d0ae7052e5
- Revision history: /companies/apellix/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Roborock20 models
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
Video
Apellix invented the world's first National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Compliant Cleaning Drone! NDAA compliance is required to operate a drone in all Fe
This is a video of a light duty Apellix proof of concept aircraft in early July 2016. This video shows the Apellix aerial robot system coating white latex pain
On February 21, 2026, people flew in from around the world to witness the LIVE unveiling of Apellix Intelligence (AI), Apellix's autonomous drone software. As
Proof of concept (POC) for the Apellix Worker Bee Spray Painting Drone. The drone is fully under computer control and is able to paint a line between two points
Apellix is an early-stage company and the leader in aerial robotics. It is the only company with proven capability to measure the thickness of steel on a 300’ f
About Apellix: Apellix designs and manufactures semi-autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray painting, and inspection. Our patented aerial robotic
For 2 min version see: https://youtu.be/2sNNoQH91RE About Apellix: Apellix designs and manufactures semi-autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray
This video is of the Apellix Smart Bee(TM) aerial robotic system conducting Ultrasonic Thickness (Ultrasonic Testing / UT) gauging of an aboveground storage tan
About Apellix: Apellix designs and manufactures semi-autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray painting, and inspection. Our patented aerial robotic
About Apellix: Apellix designs and manufactures semi-autonomous industrial drones for power washing, spray painting, and inspection. Our patented aerial robotic
Here is a short video showing a split-screen of the 2 user interfaces streamed from the onboard computer on the Ultrasonic Thickness testing aircraft. On the ri
Blasting Experts es una empresa especializada en Limpieza y Preparación de Superficies, distribuidor exclusivo de las marcas más importantes de la industria pa
Heat Index
Serious54/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Apellix draws attention at the 77th percentile but verifies reality at the 7th percentile among other robots. Hype Gap +70.3, 10th widest among other robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Safety profile within acceptable range for category. Limited public funding data for capital position assessment.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 3, 2026