Autonomous Aviation Expert Receives ‘Top 100’ Manufacturing Honor

A Coventry-based autonomous vehicle operations manager has been named as an ‘unsung hero’ in one of the industrial world’s competitions.

Aurrigo International plc’s Ricky Raines was featured in The Manufacturer Top 100 manufacturing professionals at an event in Birmingham for the way he has helped lead the deployment of first and last mile driverless pods/shuttles and Auto-DollyTug.

The former hospitality worker made the switch into engineering and is now working with European cities and seven global airports, including Cincinnati, Zurich and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Each location has had its own intricacies and route mapping to consider, including bringing together multiple stakeholders to ensure a safe deployment space that delivers the trial conditions and data required to support the integration of autonomous vehicles.

“When I joined Aurrigo eight years ago, I never thought for one minute I’d be named in the Top 100 manufacturing professionals in the UK…I’m just doing my job,” explained Ricky, who has overseen more than 5,000 hours of domestic and international testing.

He continues, “For me, it shows how far we have come as a business and the fact that we are now viewed as one of the first companies in the world to be deploying our autonomous vehicles airside. This is some achievement from the 110 people we employ in Coventry and at our international bases in the US, Canada and Singapore.”

Raines added, “There’s certainly been some challenges along the way, including managing lots of different stakeholders, evolving legislation and some good old fashioned bad weather. Thankfully we’ve even now developed a rainwater algorithm, which means Auto-DollyTug can still operate in up to 50mm per hour of rain.”

Ricky’s expertise has contributed to the expansion of Aurrigo’s autonomous vehicle solutions, increasing customer confidence and adoption across the company’s pods, shuttles and aviation vehicles.

The last twelve months have seen the business report a 33% increase in total revenues to £8.9m, including a staggering 433% rise in autonomous sales covering Auto-Sim (a software platform for replicating airport activity) and Auto-DollyTug, the latter responsible for moving luggage and cargo around.

Beyond deployments, the 32-year-old has also been a cornerstone of internal training and knowledge-sharing with the firm’s engineering department.

He has personally trained numerous team members and external partners in the safe operation of autonomous vehicles.

CEO of Aurrigo International Professor David Keene said, “While others may focus solely on their designated tasks, Ricky takes ownership of the broader success of each project, ensuring that our solutions are implemented safely and efficiently.”

Keene concluded, “His commitment to training, knowledge-sharing, and operational excellence has had a lasting impact on both the company and the wider industry. He fully merits inclusion into The Manufacturer’s Top 100.”