Best Drone and Robotics Engineering Companies in and Around Portland, Oregon (2026)
The best drone and robotics engineering companies in and around Portland, Oregon in 2026 are Aerora Technology, Teledyne FLIR and Rose City Robotics in the Portland metro, plus Agility, Insitu, Hood Tech, Sagetech Avionics, Trillium Engineering and Northwest UAV in the wider region. Only the first three are in Portland or its suburbs. The rest are in Salem, McMinnville or the Columbia River Gorge, one to two hours away.
We included the wider region on purpose. The Gorge towns of Hood River, Oregon and Bingen, Washington hold one of the densest clusters of uncrewed aircraft engineering in the U.S., and a Portland buyer will often work with them. Each entry and the table below say exactly where the company is.
How we chose
Quick comparison
| Company | Location | Best for | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aerora Technology | Portland, OR and Santa Clara, CA | ODM design and production for OEMs | U.S. engineering, Vietnam manufacturing |
| Teledyne FLIR | Wilsonville, OR (Portland metro) | Thermal and dual-sensor camera modules | Hadron 640R+ weighs 56 g |
| Rose City Robotics | Portland, OR | Robotic battery disassembly | 2026 DOE recycling prize winner |
| Agility | Salem, OR (wider region) | Humanoid robots for warehouses and factories | Digit 5 unveiled September 2026 |
| Insitu (Boeing) | Bingen, WA (Gorge, wider region) | Long-endurance fixed-wing ISR | 1.6M+ operational hours |
| Hood Tech | Hood River, OR (Gorge, wider region) | Stabilized gimbals, launch and recovery | 10,000+ gimbals shipped |
| Sagetech Avionics | Bingen, WA (Gorge, wider region) | Transponders and detect and avoid | $248.5M Army APX-128 contract |
| Trillium Engineering | Hood River, OR (Gorge, wider region) | Gimbaled imaging for Group 1-3 UAS | Designs and builds in Hood River |
| Northwest UAV | McMinnville, OR (wider region) | UAV engines and propulsion | American-made heavy-fuel engines |
Aerora Technology
Aerora is an ODM with locations in Portland, Oregon and Santa Clara, California. It partners with OEMs to design, develop, manufacture and scale autonomous aerial, ground, maritime and robotic products. Engineering leadership, program management and full RMA support are in the U.S., and manufacturing is in Vietnam. Its process runs from discovery and design through prototyping, DVT/EVT/PVT validation, DFM, tooling and production ramp. Engineering covers ADRC flight and gimbal control proven on multirotor, fixed-wing and tilt-rotor platforms, and FOC ESCs that Aerora describes as sensorless and patent pending. Electronics work spans Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Rockchip, Intel, TI, ST and Ambarella platforms. In one case study, Aerora integrated a Teledyne FLIR Hadron on Lantronix Open-Q SOMs for an OEM’s dual EO/IR payload. Aerora builds to NDAA (FY2020 §848 / FY2024 §1823-1826) sourcing requirements. See ODM services and engineering.
Worth checking: Aerora’s hardware is built in Vietnam, so ask for each product’s FCC authorization and exemption status. Aerora is not on the Blue UAS list.
Teledyne FLIR
Teledyne FLIR has its headquarters in Wilsonville, south of Portland. It started as FLIR Systems in Tigard in 1978, and Teledyne bought it in 2021. For uncrewed systems, its OEM line includes the Boson+ thermal core and the Hadron 640R+, which pairs a 640×512 radiometric thermal camera with a 64 MP visible camera. The Hadron 640R+ weighs 56 grams and is rated IP54. Teledyne FLIR describes these modules as NDAA-compliant and ITAR-free, and they work with its Prism AI software for detection and tracking. Its unmanned portfolio also includes the Black Hornet nano drone and ground robots from its Endeavor Robotics purchase.
Worth checking: Teledyne FLIR sells components and its own systems. You will still need an integrator to design the payload around the module.
Rose City Robotics
Rose City Robotics is based in Portland. It builds robots that take apart end-of-life EV battery packs into modules, cells and components, sorted for second life or recycling. Expert technicians train the robots by teleoperation, and the robots then run autonomously, with a human stepping in for new situations. In July 2026 it was one of eight winners of the Department of Energy’s Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough Contest, receiving $200,000 and advancing to Phase IV. Its application listed partners including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Daimler Trucks North America and Portland State University.
Worth checking: Rose City Robotics is an early-stage company focused on one application. Confirm deployment timelines and capacity for your volumes.
Agility
Agility, which dropped “Robotics” from its name in March 2026, is headquartered in Salem, about an hour south of Portland. It builds Digit at RoboFab, a 70,000-square-foot Salem factory designed for up to 10,000 robots a year. On 15 September 2026 it unveiled Digit 5, designed to work near people without safety cages. Agility reports more than $300 million in multi-year orders, with early access planned for the first half of 2027. It opened a hardware and physical AI development hub in Fremont, California in July 2026 and has announced a proposed merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI.
Worth checking: Digit 5 general availability is planned for late 2027. Check delivery timing against your automation schedule.
Insitu (Boeing)
Insitu, a Boeing company, is headquartered in Bingen, Washington, across the Columbia from Hood River. It builds the ScanEagle (18+ hours endurance, 17 lb payload) and the Integrator (up to 27.5 hours, 50 lb payload across 10 bays). Insitu says the two aircraft have logged more than 1.6 million operational hours from over 45 ship classes and land sites on six continents. In May 2026 it was selected to provide contractor-owned, contractor-operated ISR services to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and other government customers.
Worth checking: Insitu sells its own aircraft and services to government customers. It is not a design partner for commercial products.
Hood Tech
Hood Technology is an engineering company headquartered in Hood River. Its Vision division makes stabilized gimbals with electro-optical cameras, infrared imagers and laser designators, from the compact 05 Series to the 14 Series. Hood Tech Vision says it has shipped more than 10,000 units with over 1.5 million flight hours, and it lists AeroVironment, Shield AI, Anduril and Insitu among its customers. Other divisions build UAV launch and recovery systems, support crewed aircraft operations and monitor blade vibration in turbines.
Worth checking: Gimbals are a component. Confirm integration support, lead times and export requirements for your platform.
Sagetech Avionics
Sagetech Avionics is headquartered in Bingen, Washington. It makes miniature transponders and detect-and-avoid and collision-avoidance systems for crewed and uncrewed aircraft, aimed at safe airspace integration. In April 2026 the U.S. Army awarded it a 10-year, $248.5 million IDIQ contract to produce the AN/APX-128 IFF transponder, which includes ADS-B In and an optional ACAS Xr collision-avoidance upgrade. In 2025 it announced a detect-and-avoid collaboration with MatrixSpace.
Worth checking: Sagetech supplies avionics. Confirm certification status and availability for the specific unit you plan to use.
Trillium Engineering
Trillium Engineering was founded in 2013 by three payload engineers and is headquartered in Hood River. It develops and manufactures gimbaled imaging systems there, including the HD25 for micro UAS, the HD40, the HD80 and the HD95 for medium-altitude long-endurance platforms. J.F. Lehman & Company became its majority shareholder in 2021.
Worth checking: Trillium is a payload supplier. Match the gimbal class to your airframe’s size and power budget early.
Northwest UAV
Northwest UAV is based in McMinnville, in the Willamette Valley southwest of Portland. It designs, tests and produces UAV propulsion in house, including the NW-44, NW-88 and NW-230 heavy-fuel engines, and a PEM hydrogen fuel cell. It calls its products American-made and says it holds AS9100D and ISO 9001 certifications. It also distributes components such as Veronte autopilots.
Worth checking: Northwest UAV focuses on engines for larger fixed-wing aircraft. Small multirotor programs will need electric propulsion elsewhere.
Common questions
Are there drone companies in Portland, Oregon?
Yes. Aerora Technology has a Portland location, and Teledyne FLIR, a major supplier of drone thermal cameras, is headquartered in suburban Wilsonville. Rose City Robotics builds battery disassembly robots in Portland. Larger drone makers such as Insitu, Hood Tech, Sagetech and Trillium are in the Columbia River Gorge, about an hour east.
Why are so many drone companies in the Columbia River Gorge?
The area has about 30 years of aerospace production behind it, anchored by Insitu in Bingen, Washington. Bingen and Hood River, Oregon now host Insitu, Sagetech, Hood Tech, Trillium and Aerovel, among others. For a drone builder, that means gimbals, avionics, airframes and experienced engineers are all within a short drive of each other.
Do drones designed in Oregon need FCC exemptions?
It depends on where they are produced, not where they are designed. Since December 2025, foreign-produced drones and critical components need an exemption for new FCC equipment authorizations. Exemptions cover the Blue UAS list, Buy American items (through 1 January 2028) and DoW or DHS Conditional Approvals. Ask any partner that builds offshore for its status.
Is NDAA compliance the same as FCC approval?
No. NDAA sourcing rules limit which drones and components federal agencies can buy and operate. The FCC Covered List decides whether a product can receive a new equipment authorization at all. A product can meet one test and not the other. Our guide to NDAA and Blue UAS requirements explains both.
Talk to Aerora
If you are building a drone or robotics product and want one partner from architecture through volume production, talk to Aerora’s Portland or Santa Clara team. Describe your project on the contact page, and we will include FCC and sourcing details in our proposal. You can also compare drone payloads for inspection, see our list of drone engineering firms in California, or review our products.
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