Aerom by Dragonfly
Survey‑grade RTK.
Built in India.
A complete RTK GNSS system — rover, base station, field app and desktop post-processing — designed for Indian surveyors and drone operators, at a price that does not require a finance committee.
Why this exists
Precision positioning in India is priced for the few.
Priced out
Imported premium receivers land at ₹15–25 lakh. The surveyors who would use one every single day are exactly the ones who cannot justify it.
Imported and unsupported
When an imported unit misbehaves on site, support is an email to another continent and a wait measured in weeks.
Software that ignores India
Wrong datum, wrong projection, an export the department rejects. The receiver was never the hard part — the workflow was.
The measurement
One centimetre, on our own hardware.
Not a datasheet number borrowed from a chip vendor. This is our receiver, our antenna, our software, in the field.
Measured on Aerom hardware in New Delhi. A demonstrated result under good sky view — not a published all-conditions specification.
And it holds across a job, not just a moment
A 53-point session logged at ±14 mm per point with corrections aged 1.0 s. Every point stores its fix state, satellite count, accuracy and antenna height, so the observation is defensible months later.
We have not yet published consistency figures under canopy or dense urban multipath. That validation is in progress and we will publish it when it exists.
The system
Not a board on a stick. A working system.
Hardware gets us in the door. The software is what keeps the job moving.
Where we compete
Everyone hits about a centimetre. The difference is everything else.
Here is the market as honestly as we can draw it, including the row where we currently lose.
| Criterion | Trimble / LeicaPremium incumbent | CHC / Hi-TargetVolume leader | Emlid Reach RS4Disruptor | AeromUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horizontal RTK accuracy | ~8 mm + 1 ppm | ~8 mm + 1 ppm | ~7 mm + 1 ppm | ~1 cm demonstrated |
| Indicative India price | ₹15–25 L | ₹3–8 L | ~₹2 L | On request |
| Built in India | No | No | No | Yes |
| Support | Via dealer | Via dealer | Email, EU hours | Direct, in India |
| NavIC | Partial | Partial | No | On the roadmap |
| Indian survey workflows | Generic | Weak | Generic | Built for it |
| Tilt compensation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Roadmap |
| Software subscription | Paid, high | Bundled | ~₹21k / yr | Bundled + Pro tier |
Accuracy is table stakes. Published RTK accuracy across this market sits around 7–8 mm + 1 ppm horizontal, and we do not claim to beat it. We claim you should not have to pay ₹20 lakh for it. Note also the tilt-compensation row — that one is not in our favour yet, and we would rather you read it here than discover it later.
Indicative Indian street prices and published specifications, verified August 2026. Prices move; ask us for current figures.
The moat
Hardware gets us in. Software and support keep us in.
Built in India
Designed and assembled domestically — which matters commercially, and matters again where government procurement requires indigenous content.
Support you can actually reach
Same country, same working day, same language. When a site is stalled, that is the only specification that counts.
Indian workflows, natively
The coordinate systems, datums and deliverable formats Indian survey work actually runs on — not a generic export you have to fix by hand.
A trust layer, not just a number
Fix state in plain English, correction age alongside it, and audit metadata stored against every point you record.
NavIC on the roadmap
Aligned with national positioning infrastructure as it matures.
Priced to be bought
The accuracy class of instruments costing many times more, at a price a working surveyor can actually justify.
FAQ
Straight answers
What exactly is Aerom?
A complete survey-grade RTK GNSS system: a rover, a base station, an Android field app called Aerom Capture, and a desktop post-processing app called Aerom Studio. It is built around the u-blox ZED-X20P receiver and designed, assembled and supported in India.
How accurate is it?
We have demonstrated approximately 1 cm horizontal and 1 cm vertical RTK on our own hardware, with 12 satellites and a fixed carrier solution. That is the same accuracy class as receivers costing far more — across this market published RTK accuracy sits around 7–8 mm + 1 ppm, and we do not claim to beat it. It is a demonstrated result under good sky view, not an all-conditions specification.
What does it cost?
We do not publish the price, because it is still moving as we finalise the production build and because the right configuration depends on whether you need a rover, a base, or both. Request the price sheet and we will send current figures the same working day.
Can I buy one today?
Not yet. Aerom is in its pilot programme — we are placing units with surveyors, drone operators and institutions who will use them on real jobs and tell us what breaks. If that sounds like you, that is exactly who we want to hear from.
Why buy from a new Indian company instead of an established brand?
For most buyers the honest answer today is: because of price, because it is built in India and therefore eligible where indigenous content is required, and because support is a phone call in your own time zone rather than an email to another continent. If you need a decade of field-proven track record right now, we do not have that yet and will not pretend otherwise.
Does it support NavIC?
NavIC is on our roadmap, not shipping today. We list it as a roadmap item rather than a feature because it is not yet in your hands.
Next step
Join the pilot programme
We are placing units with surveyors, drone operators and institutions who will use them on real jobs. Tell us what you survey and we will arrange a demo and send the price sheet.
Prefer email? prashantkr2804@gmail.com