The FPV video shows the view of a Ukrainian kamikaze drone making its final approach to a Russian armored vehicle. The video feed was cut out, disrupted due to Russian radio interference, and the pilot lost control. This would normally be the end of the mission, but the A Second Drone video shows the AI-powered FPV guiding directly to the target and achieving a direct hit. It is one of the first moves that a new intelligent autopilot provided through the American company Auterion, which avoids interference and has a higher success rate than human pilots.
The Skynode S autopilot, revealed last week, is already on the front lines in Ukraine. The ability to fix a long diversity makes interference unnecessary; I have noticed a number of combat videos that I cannot percentage for safety reasons, and warnings apply, however, as far as we know, the formula proves effective. As Dr. Lorenz Meier, CEO of Auterion, told me, reaching goals automatically with FPVs is just the beginning.
Auterion apps ask developers to write their own apps for Skynode S and download what they need. Meier says terminal management software for attack drones is the most popular lately.
“Using the terminal is like MS Office on a laptop,” says Meier. “This is the minimum requirement that everyone expects. “
The Pentagon obviously believes in Auterion’s open source software, putting it at the center of its Blue sUAS initiative for small, American-made military drones. This was implemented as an option for Chinese-supplied drones, which are becoming popular with a built-in security threat. and are banned by the US military.
In the past, Auterion developed the Skynode The new Skynode S offers similar functions but at a particularly reduced price. cost.
“In Ukraine we offer a ‘help to Ukraine’ point,” Meier explains. “It’s usually worth the variety of an Android phone, which costs several hundred dollars. “
This puts the Skynode S in the same elegance as thermal imaging in terms of particularly extending the load of a $500 FPV, but providing particularly advanced capabilities. And the load can be minimized as production increases.
“Skynode S. . . it will be produced in tens of thousands, which is a scale,” Meier says.
It’s no surprise to be informed that Auterion is also concerned about the Pentagon’s Replicator program to deploy a giant number of cheap AI-powered drones.
The steering formula allows for optical lock-on: the operator identifies the target and signals it to the autopilot while the drone is outside the jamming range. It can then continue to pass through the “interference bubble” even if the operator loses contact. According to General Pierre Schill, chief of staff of the French army, 75% of drones are recently destroyed through jamming.
Meier says his AI terminal steering formula used in Ukraine has hit all targets in the initial deployment so far, compared to 20-40% for human-controlled FPVs. He doesn’t expect an uninterrupted run of success, but he believes they can continue to achieve a particularly higher pace than human drivers.
This makes it possible to eliminate the two main causes of failure (pilot error and interference).
The implication is that with a steering formula like Auterion S, four times as many drones could pass, and then they would have a higher success rate thanks to intelligent steering. It is worrying to think that FPV’s already high death rate could be particularly higher due to such an undeniable modification.
And while the current edition only guides the drones to the target, long-term advances will likely come with crosshair selection, where the AI chooses the most vulnerable point. For example, they could circle to hit the back of the turret of Russian tanks, which tends to cause a catastrophic explosion, or the ammunition depot of a self-propelled gun.
Open-source software makes it less difficult to expand new applications. In June, the nonprofit Dronecode hosted a 48-hour hackathon in Krakow for NATO, challenging groups of coders to expand a formula for visually identifying targets and mapping out a flight path to intercept them. They used an earlier edition of Skynode S with AuterionOS for the newly released product.
“It’s a world first,” Meier says.
But the generation is capable of much more.
GPS and other satellite navigation systems are suffering severe interference in Ukraine and Russia, affecting even some military-grade systems and deflecting Excalibur guided artillery shells and JDAM guided bombs provided through the United States, as well as drones. The same old solution to this challenge is to use expensive inertial navigation modules, but those that are wrong over longer distances are expensive.
Artificial intelligence systems are also capable of visual navigation, a drone’s camera to locate the path through matching elements on the ground, just like the first pilots, images from previous reconnaissance flights. Some Ukrainian drones already have artificial intelligence software called Eagle Eyes for this.
Long-range attack drones like Ukrainian Bobrs can receive accurate AI guidance for a few hundred dollars.
Meier says the Skynode S can add a charging touch: terminal guide. Once the drone reaches the target area, an object popularity app can visually capture the target and engage it with pinpoint accuracy. In principle, this means that even an impact several hundred kilometers away can locate a fast device in an oil refinery, impact the center of a satellite dish, or pass through a certain window. Or simply head toward a tank stationed far from the front line that has been detected via satellite.
This configuration has already been tested on Ukrainian drones from the Russian Lancet and Shahed.
“The tests showed that it can hit targets accurately,” Meier says. “The formula will be deployed on the front line in the coming weeks. “
Skynode S can also assist in air-to-air combat. Meier hopes that autonomous “air combat” programs will soon be available, which will allow an FPV drone to trace an intercept trajectory, outwit an adversary trying to avoid it, and destroy it without the intervention of any operator, exploding when it enters. destructive distance.
Ukrainian FPV drones have recently intercepted Russian reconnaissance drones at the highest altitudes. Skynode S could particularly increase the number and rate of good luck of those engagements, while ensuring that Ukrainian drones can outperform Russian interceptors.
An AI driving force can also help with other tasks. For example, some experienced FPV pilots must perform dive bomb attacks, providing the accuracy of a kamikaze attack but without sacrificing a drone. The main limitation turns out to be the lack of an experienced motive. forces. But a dive-bombing app may be downloaded soon.
Automated minelaying with drones, or employing anti-jam drones to drop tire-destroying caltrops on fast routes, enemy lines, or simply resupplying friendly forces can also become much easier.
Looking at the bigger picture, Meier says Skynode S is already embedded with Ukrainian battlefield control software like ATAK and Kropyva. These systems and commands collect data from drones, satellites, and other assets and combine it into a single visual image for commanders on the ground. He demonstrates this with a video of an AI-powered reconnaissance drone that detects objects and sends data.
The Skynode S hardware is small and enough to install in reconnaissance quadcopters
Targets are still controlled by a human operator, but the AI system has already done the vast majority of the work to locate pieces of interest in the video stream. As the drone no longer requires an operator, this will ensure more accurate tracking of the front, 24/7, in real-time. And because you only want to talk when you discover something, AI-based popularity requires much less bandwidth to send much more useful information.
AI also provides the ability to incorporate functions such as replacement detection, comparing a scene with its previous appearance to detect new minefields, trenches, vehicle tracks or camouflaged positions.
Putting AI at the forefront could especially improve the process of collecting, processing, and disseminating intelligence on the battlefield. Thousands of intelligent, autonomous reconnaissance drones may, in the end, be more vital to warfare than terminal guidance.
Skynode S also supports drone swarms: a single operator can control multiple drones. Therefore, an operator can have several reconnaissance drones and an FPV stack ready to launch, employing the scouts to locate targets and guiding the FPVs to interact with them.
This gives the impression that the entire chain of destruction could be automated. It’s vital here that there’s a human on the floor to oversee operations, even if you don’t want to be aware of it anymore.
Meier emphasizes that Skynode S is not intended to create autonomous killing machines. He compares the point of automation to the way guided missiles are used lately. The FPV operator that locks on a target does exactly the same as a Javelin missile operator: o They are “fire and forget” weapons that move towards targets in the past designated by a human being.
“I would seriously consider anything more autonomous,” Meier says. “But much more can still be done without allowing drones to reach their targets autonomously. “
It will take work to fully explore the new features introduced through Skynode S. But with a giant group of software developers, cheap hardware and an inventory of drones to achieve compatibility, and a war to win, things are likely. quickly.
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