Unmanned ground vehicles: ARX Robotics and Deutz form strategic partnership

Marc Wietfeld, CEO of ARX Robotics, and Sebastian Schulte, CEO of Deutz AG, together with Marco Herre, CEO of Deutz Defense, recently signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in unmanned ground vehicles. The occasion was a roundtable at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Cooperation between a new defence tech company and an established industrial market leader is intended to give the German economy important growth impetus and strengthen Germany as a location for industry and innovation in the long term.

Modern conflicts depend less and less on individual, heavily armed systems – they need networked, fast unmanned systems, and above all many of them. Europe has so far lacked a scalable industrial base to build them, particularly on land. According to the press release, this is where the two companies come in: “Together, ARX Robotics and Deutz provide European land forces with these urgently needed capabilities through unmanned, software-defined systems and automated energy solutions.”

Deutz drives for unmanned ground vehicles

Deutz drive systems are to be installed in ARX Robotics' ground drones – initially battery-electric, later also combustion or hybrid drives. The partners are developing a common interface between the Deutz drives and the AI-driven software platform Mithra OS from ARX Robotics.

For ARX co-founder and CEO Marc Wietfeld, the cooperation sends a signal: “With this partnership we show that Europe can strengthen its defence capability on its own. ARX contributes unmanned, software-defined systems, Deutz industrial power and drive expertise – together we deliver the necessary mass of unmanned systems to our land forces.”

Through its Energy and NewTech business units, Deutz will also supply energy infrastructure in the field, including power generators, storage solutions and swappable batteries. ARX Robotics also gains access to Deutz's global production and service network so that large orders can be fulfilled quickly.

As part of the strategic cooperation, Deutz is also taking a minority stake in ARX Robotics as one of its key investors – a sign of the long-term orientation of the partnership.

Marco Herre, CEO of Deutz Defense, also joins the Board of Advisors of ARX Robotics. He said: “Unmanned and semi-autonomous defence systems are becoming ever more important and will be a central component of future armed forces. To this end, we combine the leading software and robotics expertise of ARX Robotics with our strengths in drives, decentralised energy supply and industrial production.”