Ukraine orders thousands of Skynode modules for drone machine vision
16 November, 2024 A drone with the Skynode S module by Auterion.
2024. Freeze frame from video by Untethered Podcast Ukraine is going to receive tens of thousands of Skynode modules that will provide Ukrainian drones with machine vision.
The Wall Street Journal has learned that the Ukrainian defense industry is preparing to scale up automated drones. Ukrainian manufacturing companies are planning to scale up the production of inexpensive and effective drones on the battlefield this month. "An even bigger breakthrough is coming - mass-produced automated drones.
Ukrainian drone manufacturers are rapidly ramping up production of low-cost attack drones controlled by a simple, cheap computer to industrial scale," the article says. The article refers to the successful integration of Auterion modules into compact systems.
Auterion's Skynode S module.
Photo credits: breakingdefense.com
"Kyiv is about to receive tens of thousands of miniature Auterion computers, known as Skynode, which are to enter the battlefield early next year," the newspaper notes. The Skynode minicomputer and flight controller is based on low-cost technologies and Auterion software. Computer vision allows to counteract and circumvent the loss of GPS function in electronic warfare.
Skynode offers swarm control, fully autonomous flight, and resistance to interference. Drones equipped with this module get the function of automatic guidance to the target selected by the operator.
Skynode S module by Auterion.
2024. Freeze frame from video by Untethered Podcast
This guidance technology is now used in expensive products, but Ukrainian specialists have managed to adapt it for small, cheap and smart drones capable of tracking and hitting moving targets, so that the drone captures its target with a camera and a computer and enters the target without the need for the remote control by the operator.
The Ukrainian specialists have developed software that allows a tiny computer to guide the drone to the target using a camera.
A Ukrainian soldier with a drone equipped with Auterion's Skynode S module.
Photo credits: breakingdefense.com
Such attack drones are stated to have a hit rate of about nine out of ten.