Days, not weeks
design, test and refine within one process
Autonomous systems case study: how Vecros used one process from first prototype to final part on the ATHERA.
Project details:
Service: HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
Industry: Autonomous systems and inspection
Client: Vecros
Vecros developed ATHERA, an AI-powered quadcopter for autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, real-time inspection and 3D mapping. The platform demanded an entirely new, clean-sheet UAV architecture. By using HP Multi Jet Fusion from prototype through to final part, Vecros accelerated development while enhancing both design and durability, iterating rapidly without sacrificing performance. Data courtesy of VECROS
The challenge
A new architecture, with no reference design to borrow from
ATHERA could not be an adaptation of an existing airframe. Autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance and onboard intelligence change where mass sits, how payloads mount and how the structure has to behave, which meant designing the aircraft from a clean sheet.
Clean-sheet development is where conventional manufacturing costs the most time. Using one method for prototypes and another for production introduces a translation step between the two, and every design change reopens it. Material performance and part quality shift between processes, so a result proven in prototyping has to be proven again in production. For a team iterating on aerodynamics, payload integration and field feedback at once, that gap between development and deployment is the constraint.
The solution
One system and one material, from concept to production
With HP Multi Jet Fusion, the same system and the same material carry a part from first prototype to final production component. There is no second manufacturing method to design around, which allows engineers to design, test and refine in days rather than weeks.
For Vecros that removed the translation step entirely. Optimising aerodynamics, integrating new payloads and incorporating feedback from the field all happen within one process, with no variation in material performance or part quality between an iteration and the part that ships. Development timelines shortened, design and durability both improved, and the route from concept to market-ready component became a single continuous path.
In numbers
One system
and one material, from first prototype to final part
Clean sheet
architecture, designed without an existing airframe to inherit
No translation
step between prototyping and production
The aircraft
Vecros
ATHERA quadcopter
- AI-powered drone for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance
- Built for real-time inspections and 3D mapping
- Demanded an entirely new, clean-sheet UAV architecture
- MJF used from first prototype through to final production part
- Accelerated development while enhancing design and durability
Project gallery
Removing the gap between prototype and production
The value Vecros found in MJF was not a single part or a single saving, but the removal of a step. When prototyping and production share a system and a material, iteration stops being a risk to be re-validated later. AMufacture builds that continuity into its own workflow, pairing MJF capacity with design optimisation support and full traceability, so teams developing new platforms can move from concept to scalable manufacture without changing process partway.
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