A portable onboard mission payload that adds real-time perception to standard UAV carriers — detecting, tracking and visualizing mission-relevant objects directly onboard, over the existing video link. No cloud. No platform lock-in.
The perception gap sits inside the loop — between a live feed and a confident, held target.
The operator hunts, identifies and holds the object by hand over the video link — under stress, wind and a moving airframe. Miss a frame, lose the track.
Server-side AI is unusable where it matters: jamming, latency and lost link. The perception has to live on the aircraft, not in a datacenter.
Generic detectors are ground-trained. Small, oblique, top-down objects slip through — and they false-fire on rooftops and field texture.
A portable onboard perception layer that rides the aircraft — detect many, track one, assist the operator, all onboard.
A whole-frame detector marks every vehicle, person and mission-relevant object in view with a clean reticle — a live plot, not screen clutter.
The operator — or the system — selects a single object; KestrelCV holds it through motion, vibration and scene change, with range and closing rate on the HUD.
The full perception overlay travels down the existing video link into goggles or ground station — the operator sees what the aircraft sees, decides and acts.
Runs headless on the airframe. Zero external services at inference — no continuous external-compute dependency.
The selected target is priority #1. Occlusion → resume the same track, not a new detection. The reticle stays glued; the picture reads expensive — because perception is trust.
A portable perception engine. Low latency. Any edge.
A hardware-agnostic software stack, validated on two very different compute backends. The same core scales onto more powerful or leaner silicon — the code doesn't change with the hardware.
Internal perception latency low enough for a human to fly on — and for the loop to close onboard. Tuned per compute load.
The perception overlay rides the existing video link — no second datalink, no cloud. The operator sees exactly what the aircraft perceives.
One fast video channel — the operator chooses how much of the loop to hand over.
Detect → lock → track with no human in the inner loop. Latency low enough that the aircraft holds the object through its own and the target's maneuver.
The system finds and holds candidates; the operator designates and commits. Machine speed for perception, human for the decision.
A pure perception overlay painted into the goggles — the operator flies, the HUD calls out what matters, in real time, over the link they already have.
One perception core keeps its picture onboard — degrading gracefully on a contested link rather than going blind.
Scales across a family — one perception core; the platform picks its class. The software doesn't change, the mount does.
Fixed camera core + gyro-EIS.
1-axis stabilized + software EIS.
3-axis gimbal + geolocation.
Not slideware — a demonstrator in the air. It flew on a real airframe, locked a moving vehicle and held it — with the perception HUD carried live into the operator's goggles over the video link. Built by two founders, concept to flying portable demonstrator, without outside funding.
A structured 12-month engineering programme — turning a proven payload into an industrial-grade mission system.
Detect + lock + HUD, in the air, on two compute builds.
Autonomous lock, co-pilot assist & AR overlay on one core.
GPS + AHRS + camera angle + range → object lat/lon.
Hold through aggressive platform & target maneuver.
Gyro + optical-flow EIS across the platform family.
Video links, gimbal, compute carriers, airframe fit.
Thermals, 24 h stress, anti-tamper, secure boot.
Structured flight campaigns; labeled evaluation set.
Decades of hands-on software, embedded, hardware and systems engineering — from the bench to the airframe. Build-first: the demonstrator flew before the pitch was written.
Flies the airframe and owns the perception core — detection, target tracking, video systems and the onboard HUD. Took the system from zero to a held target in the air.
Owns the physical stack — electronics, video links, stabilization, mission-carrier design and compact payload integration onto the airframe.