Autonomous drone company Apollo Robotics is launching an early-bird program allowing professional drone industry players to pre-order new products.

The Ventura, Calif.-based firm has launched the Apollo Development Partner Program which will give early access to fully automated, autonomous surveying drone platforms to qualified professionals.

The Apollo system combines multi-sensor LiDAR, HD and thermal cameras with artificial intelligence that can digitize and reconstruct worksite data into 3D models.

According to a company statement, Apollo has acquired more than $2 million in pre-order purchase commitments. Early-adopter partners can buy the Apollo Surveyor Version 1 drone solution for a one-time cost of $53,800 with FlightService mission planning software included.

“After several years of flying drones for photos, videos, and aerial photogrammetry surveying, Submar was looking to step up our game to the next level of precision and accuracy that our clients demand in the oil and gas industry,” said Kevin Foley, CEO of Submar, an industry leader in pipeline erosion control. “Apollo Robotics and their hardware and software platform represent the Holy Grail of everything we are looking for.”

Rob Cammack, CEO of Apollo Robotics, added:

“For the past three years, our team, working in stealth mode, has studied the surveyors’ challenges and bootstrapped a disruptive and affordable solution that is tailored to achieve scalable digital transformation of the surveyor’s business model. This experience has allowed us to fully grasp the very needs of lead practitioners and develop a compelling, user-friendly solution to most challenges of today’s surveyors. Today, our Version 1 platform enables the digitization of an entire worksite integrating mission-critical capabilities to deliver an affordable, surveyor friendly, full-stack solution.”

“Autonomous surveying can be cost prohibitive, time-consuming, and require scarce expertise that is already in high demand,” said Apollo Executive Chairman Avi Reichental.

“By applying and integrating deep learning, 3D digitization and multi-sensoring, Apollo is addressing this multi-billion-dollar opportunity by delivering the first ever affordable solution that improves a surveyor’s overall competitiveness and bottom-line,” Reichental added.

The company plans to showcase the Surveyor Version 1 platform at CES 2019.