Voliro, a pioneer in aerial mobile robotics, is proud to announce the promotion of Florian Tschopp to Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Florian’s leadership has been central to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aerial robotic inspection. His deep expertise in robotics, AI, and autonomous systems has helped elevate Voliro’s technology to new heights, solidifying the Voliro T as the industry’s leading solution for safe and precise work at height.
As CTO, Florian will lead Voliro’s global technology vision and development strategy, guiding the company’s evolution toward becoming the category-defining leader in Physical AI at height. His mission is to build a fully integrated aerial platform that merges intelligence, precision, and autonomy—redefining how humans and machines collaborate in complex industrial settings.
To mark this exciting milestone, Voliro sat down with Florian to talk about his journey, his background in robotics and Physical AI, and his vision for the future of Voliro’s technology suite. Below is the full conversation, offering an inside look at how Florian and the Voliro team are shaping the future of intelligent aerial robotics.
Q: What excites you the most about the opportunity to serve as Voliro’s Chief Technology Officer?
Florian: Working together with our outstanding team excites me most. Together, we bring excellence across the entire robotics stack, from hardware and low-level embedded systems to perception and AI, and cloud infrastructure. This gives us a unique opportunity to develop a fully integrated platform that excels in performance, reliability and user experience. Voliro operates at the cutting edge of Physical AI at height, a domain that is not only technologically challenging but also full of potential to redefine how humans and machines collaborate in complex environments.
Q: What is your background prior to Voliro?
Florian: Prior to joining Voliro, I spent two years in London at Arrival, revolutionizing the way electric vehicles are manufactured. Our team developed the perception stack of our autonomous mobile robot, which was capable of carrying up to two tons around the factory floor and collaborating on even heavier loads. There, I learned what it means to build robotics software fit for large-scale deployments and production, and designed to run reliably across hundreds of robots.
Before that, I completed my PhD at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich under Prof. Roland Siegwart, where I focused on developing robust, large-scale mapping solutions for challenging environments such as high-speed railway scenarios with vast appearance changes.
Q: What is your vision for the future of Voliro’s technology suite?
Florian: Voliro is already transforming how work at height is performed. Looking ahead, we aim to evolve into a generalist platform for work at height, enabling anyone to use our system to perform any physical task in hard-to-reach places. To achieve this, we’re advancing our perception capabilities to build a deep understanding of the environment. This unlocks higher levels of autonomy and Physical AI, allowing us to learn to perform new tasks at height, from point interactions that we already excel at, to sliding and grinding, and up to complex tool usage and manipulation work. Furthermore, seamless integration into customer workflows makes operations truly scalable. I strongly believe that the combination of advanced platform capabilities and intuitive data integration will make a big impact.
Q: How would you characterize Voliro’s position within the Physical AI space?
Florian: I see Physical AI as the ability of an artificial entity to not only make intelligent decisions or agentic actions virtually, but to take meaningful actions in the physical world. Voliro is the category‑defining leader in Physical AI at height. We are building an open, autonomy‑ready aerial platform that doesn’t just see assets, it acts on them safely, precisely, and repeatedly. Our focus is to deepen our leadership in this space by enabling a more capable and intuitive workforce at height – one that integrates perception, control, and manipulation into a seamless Physical AI system.
Q: What have you enjoyed most about being part of the Voliro team?
Florian: Working together in an exceptional team on a product that creates real world impact has been incredibly rewarding! Voliro T empowers our customers to effectively and safely perform inspections, where every improvement in autonomy, reliability, and user experience has visible impact. Seeing our innovation directly improving our customers’ operations, while collaborating daily with some of the best engineers and developers in the world, is truly inspiring.
As Voliro continues to lead the evolution of Physical AI at height, Florian’s vision will be instrumental in shaping the next generation of intelligent aerial systems. With innovation at its core and a world-class team behind it, Voliro is redefining how work at height is performed.
Learn more about Voliro’s latest advancements and the future of aerial robotics on our Blog Page →
