AXLDRONE INDIA PVT. LTD.
ACCELERATING UNMANNED DRONE DEVELOPMENT WITH SOLIDWORKS AND 3DEXPERIENCE
WORKS SOLUTIONS

Case Study

By adding modeling, design, data management, simulation, collaboration, and communication solutions
from the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio, which operate on the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform,
to its existing SOLIDWORKS installation, axldrone cut design cycles, shortened time to market, reduceddevelopment costs, and slashed manufacturing costs while developing its innovative unmanned drones.

Challenge:
Quickly and cost-effectively develop, manufacture,and market unmanned drones with their own
comprehensive logistics tracking technology
and drone management platform to meet avariety of needs, ranging from agricultural andcinematographic applications to surveillance,
police, military, and relief operations.

Solution:
CAD modeling, design, data management,
simulation, collaboration, and communication
solutions from the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio,
which operate on the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE
platform—including 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS
Premium, 3D Creator, 3D Sculptor, SIMULIA
Durability and Mechanics Engineer, 3DEXPERIENCESOLIDWORKS Simulation Designer, Collaborative
Industry Innovator, Manufacturing Definition
Creator, 3DEXPERIENCE platform storage expanded
by 25 GB, and 3DSwymer roles—to its existing
SOLIDWORKS installation of SOLIDWORKS CAD
design software.

Results:• Cut design cycles by 30 percent• Shortened time to market by 20 percent• Reduced development costs by 25 to 30 percent• Slashed manufacturing costs by 50 percent

axldrone specializes in the design and manufactureof unmanned drones ranging in size from micro
to medium. The Indian company engineers andproduces fully integrated, autonomous dronesolutions to meet needs ranging from agriculturaland cinematographic applications to surveillance,police, military, and relief operations. Thesefully customized drones offer superb control
and flexibility as a result of the company’scomprehensive logistics tracking technology.
aakash is an end-to-end drone management
platform that provides complete control over a drone
fleet to achieve autonomous inspections, reporting,and data collection. This platform is integrated
with axldrone autonomy for data exchange. It
provides data processing and analysis, and“With tight revision controls, the3DEXPERIENCE platform ensuresthat all employees, suppliers, andpartners are able to work with the latest,
up-to-date product data. The ability to view,
annotate, manage, and share designs fromanywhere, at any time, and on any device—allwithout having to worry about using thewrong revision or mismanaging the data—not
only speeds time to market by collaboratingwith other design disciplines early in thedevelopment process but also improves
quality overall.”— Mr. Abhilash K.J, CTO

integrates with most enterprise resource planning(ERP) and existing customer systems. The axldrone
platform provides accurate, high-resolution dataand in-depth analysis while maintaining a safe
environment in and around customer locations.
When axldrone was founded in 2019, company
management realized that its designers andengineers would need access to leading solutions
to overcome the many engineering challenges
associated with drone development. Thesechallenges include identifying and preserving
the best shape, weight, and surfaces for peak
aerodynamic performance while ensuring thefitment of parts and durability of every drone.
To overcome these challenges, axldrone initiallyacquired the SOLIDWORKS® Premium 3D productdevelopment solution, according to Mr. Abhilash K.J,CTO. “We started using the SOLIDWORKS solution
in early 2023 because we needed a robust solution
with a short learning curve,” Abhilash recalls.
“After evaluating multiple CAD solutions, wefinalized on SOLIDWORKS,” Abhilash adds.
“However, we soon realized that there are various
challenges related to other departments requiring
access to product design data. For example, theQuality Department should have access to the 3Dmodel and 2D manufacturing drawings to performthe dimensioning needed for quality control.
Project planning and meeting our delivery schedule
are also critical components for our process, as is
the need to conduct FEA [finite element analysis]
simulations to minimize physical prototyping.
“In short, we needed a cloud-based solution to
support better collaboration between different
teams—and among different departments—and
better data management across the organization
to maintain data and information access control
and design data security, revision control,change management processes, project planningand management, product release processes,
and standardization across the organization,”
Abhilash says.
axldrone chose to add modeling, design, datamanagement, simulation, collaboration, andcommunication solutions from the 3DEXPERIENCE®
Works portfolio, which operate on the cloud-based
3DEXPERIENCE platform—including 3DEXPERIENCESOLIDWORKS Premium, 3D Creator, 3D Sculptor,
SIMULIA® Durability and Mechanics Engineer,
3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Simulation Designer,
Collaborative Industry Innovator, Manufacturing
Definition Creator, 3DEXPERIENCE platform storage
expanded by 25 GB, and 3DSwymer roles—to its
existing SOLIDWORKS installation.
“The key reason that we chose 3DEXPERIENCE
Works solutions is the 3DEXPERIENCE platform isa cloud-based solution for collaborative, powerful,connected PLM [product lifecycle management],
which connects our complete organization’s mostvital resources—people, software tools, and data—ina unified, secure place to collaborate on designs whilemore easily keeping projects and people on track.”
CLOUD-DRIVEN COLLABORATION SPEEDSDEVELOPMENT
Since adding 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions toits SOLIDWORKS implementation, axldrone has
shortened its design cycles by 30 percent, enabling
the company to cut time to market by 20 percent,through the combination of greater collaborationand cloud-based data and process management.
“With SOLIDWORKS CAD, we made our teamcapable of thinking and innovating independently,

Leveraging the cloud-driven collaboration and transparent data
management capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform—along with
SIMULIA and SOLIDWORKS simulation tools—axldrone designers andengineers saved time and money while simultaneously improving
product quality.

which helps us to develop our designs quickly,”
Abhilash notes.
“Moving forward with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,
we expect to realize additional improvements in theoverall process,” Abhilash continues. “We are able tosave time and work more efficiently because data is
now available to support downstream departments;
teams can plan, execute, and monitor project status
in real time; team members can easily share tasks
and define deliverables, dependencies, and key
milestones; and team members can efficiently
collaborate from anywhere, at any time, and on
any device.”
TRANSPARENT DATA AND PROCESSMANAGEMENT BOOSTS QUALITY
Using 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, axldrone
has formalized both its data management andproduct development processes, resulting in fewer
design errors and improved product quality. “The“With tight revision controls, the 3DEXPERIENCE
platform ensures that all employees, suppliers, andpartners are able to work with the latest, up-todate product data,” Abhilash stresses. “The ability
to view, annotate, manage, and share designs fromanywhere, at any time, and on any device—allwithout having to worry about using the wrong
revision or mismanaging the data—not only speeds
time to market by collaborating with other design
disciplines early in the development process but
also improves quality overall.”axldrone India Pvt. Ltd.
MEDA Building, Kakkanad
Ernakulam, Kerala 682030
India
Phone: +91 484 299 3399
www.axldrone.com
VAR: Conceptia Software Technologies,
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

SLASHING DEVELOPMENT AND
MANUFACTURING COSTS

we’ve seen development cost savings,” Abhilashstresses. “Using SOLIDWORKS DFM [design formanufacturability], configuration, and fitment
tools, along with SOLIDWORKS and SIMULIA
simulation capabilities, we’ve reduced both the costof physical prototyping and testing as well as theamount of rework required and scrap produced,”
Abhilash points out.

In addition to saving time and improving
quality, 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions havehelped axldrone reduce both development andmanufacturing costs, cutting development
costs by 25 to 30 percent and manufacturingcosts by 50 percent. “Shorter design cycles andimproved quality are not the only areas where“When you combine the reduced infrastructure
costs, IT overhead, software maintenance, andcomplexity associated with secure cloud technology
with more efficient machining and 3D printing
processes, we’re seeing cost reductions throughout
the product development and manufacturingprocess,” Abhilash says.

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quality of our product is one of the key challenges
for obtaining and maintaining a top market
position,” Abhilash explains. “The 3DEXPERIENCE
Works data management solution helps us address
this challenge by reducing the number of designerrors and rework required.