Sensonic & Skylark Drones Join Hands to Revolutionize Rail Infrastructure Monitoring

New Delhi, India (Metro Rail Today): In a landmark collaboration unveiled at IREE 2025, Sensonic, a global leader in railway infrastructure monitoring, and Skylark Drones, a pioneer in India’s drone ecosystem, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate fiber optic sensing with autonomous drone technologies — marking a new era in rail safety and digital surveillance.

“Sensonic is proud to combine our cutting-edge fiber optic sensing technology with Skylark’s rapid, autonomous drone response capabilities to enhance both rail safety and security,” said Ashish Upadhyay, CEO of Sensonic. “By merging Distributed Acoustic Sensing and advanced Bharat series drones, we are enabling real-time detection and actionable intelligence across rail corridors — key to building safer and smarter transit systems.”

The partnership will enable automated response to incidents detected by Sensonic’s Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology. Using existing fiber optic cables, Sensonic converts them into highly sensitive vibration sensors capable of identifying disturbances such as intrusions, rockfalls, or infrastructure faults. Upon detection, Skylark’s Bharat Series drones will be automatically deployed to assess the situation, capture high-resolution evidence, and guide operational teams for timely intervention.

“This collaboration represents a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive railway operations,” said Mrinal Pai, Co-founder of Skylark Drones. “Our fully autonomous drones can be deployed in less than one-third the time of manual inspection — at significantly lower costs — to make railways safer, smarter, and more resilient.”

Mrs. Mamta Shah, Managing Director & CEO of Urban Infra Group, lauded the partnership as a step forward in India’s Smart Rail Vision: “The Sensonic–Skylark collaboration is a brilliant example of how converging technologies like fiber optic sensing and AI-enabled drones can transform the way we manage and secure rail infrastructure. Such innovations will play a vital role in achieving the goals of Viksit Bharat 2047, where safety, sustainability, and digitalization form the core of our transport ecosystem.”

The alliance underscores a shared commitment to advance India’s digital rail transformation, minimizing service disruptions, preventing accidents, and improving maintenance efficiency through intelligent automation.