The Lab — standing R&D

Fly it. Break it. Prove it.

The "Labs" in our name is literal. Behind the client work runs a standing R&D practice: research we fund ourselves, and research you commission. Nothing reaches a client engagement until it has earned its way out of here — which is how we can price outcomes on technology that still feels like the future.

Bring us a research problem → What the Lab covers
Field notes

What we learned, including what didn't work.

Short write-ups from the paddock, the plant and the workshop. We publish the failures too — a research practice that only reports wins isn't a research practice.

14 August 2026 Drones · ML

What a $180 multispectral rig can and can't tell you about pasture

We flew a low-cost NDVI setup over the same Waikato paddocks for six weeks against a calibrated reference. The index tracked well enough to rank paddocks — and badly enough that we would not put a fertiliser decision on it without ground truthing. Here's where the line sits.
More notes coming. The Lab publishes when there's something worth saying, not on a content calendar. If you want them as they land, email hello@aahi.co.nz with "Lab notes" in the subject.

Got a problem no product touches?

Fund the research and it becomes our problem too — your domain expertise, our engineering, and a clear agreement up front on scope and who owns what comes out.

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NZ businesses may be eligible for Government R&D support on qualifying projects — we'll point you in the right direction.