Emesent Awarded $2M Grant to Develop GPS-Denied Autonomy Platform Cortex AI

Emesent, an autonomous mapping and robotics company, has received a $2 million grant from the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects program to develop and commercialize Cortex AI. This open,…

Emesent, an autonomous mapping and robotics company, has received a $2 million grant from the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects program to develop and commercialize Cortex AI. This open, modular autonomy platform enables robotic systems and vehicles to navigate, map, and operate in GPS-denied environments such as underground mines, building interiors, tunnels, and contested military areas.

The total project value is $5.1 million, led by Emesent in partnership with Queensland University of Technology and EPE. Cortex AI integrates Emesent’s navigation technology, QUT’s physical AI for scene understanding, and EPE’s field-proven robotics solutions.

The platform aims to decrease time-to-market for robotics applications by eliminating the need to develop GPS-denied autonomy from scratch. It functions as a hardware-agnostic operating system for aerial and ground robots, as well as vehicle automation. Partners can focus on domain-specific capabilities rather than rebuilding navigation stacks.

A working prototype has already been deployed with more than a dozen early adopter organizations across defense, mining, and the built environment. The technology is based on proven SLAM and autonomy systems from Emesent’s Hovermap and GX1 products, which operate in over 50 countries.

According to Dr. Farid Kendoul, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, the GPS-denied autonomous mapping and navigation industry is estimated to reach $9 billion by 2030, with Cortex AI serving as the foundational engine for this growth.