CV AUTONOMY STACK · ONBOARD ZIPX1
The airspace is full
of things that don’t
broadcast.
Paragliders. Balloons. Birds. Legacy aircraft with the transponder off. DroneOD’s onboard computer vision sees them anyway — then avoids them, maps the world, and turns every frame into work. All on the aircraft. No cloud in the loop.
● LIVE AIR PICTURE · CV + ADS-B
T+00:00
TRACKS 05
SILENT 02
CV LOCK · ACTIVE
● THE MODELS
FIVE NETWORKS · ONE PIPELINE · FULLY ONBOARD
RAFT-Stereo
DENSE METRIC DEPTH
YOLOv9
DETECT · CLASSIFY
ORB-SLAM3
MAP · TRACK
VINS-Fusion
EGO-MOTION
PPO Policy
AVOID · PLAN
§ 01 — ONBOARD DETECT-AND-AVOID
The see-and-avoid rule, rebuilt in silicon.
Aviation law asks every pilot to look out the window. Our aircraft has no window — so it has something better.
The stack watches the whole sky at once. When a track’s bearing stops changing and its image grows — the classic signature of a collision course — the conflict cone goes hot, the policy computes a minimal deviation, and the aircraft is already turning before a human observer would have called it. Lose the datalink and the aircraft still avoids.
DETECTION LOOP
Full-frame · every frame
CONFLICT PREDICTION
Bearing-rate + closure
DATALINK REQUIRED
None
● FIG.01 / DAA ENCOUNTER · ONBOARD LOOP
CONFLICT PREDICTED
PPO POLICY · MINIMAL DEVIATION · REJOIN TRACK
OWNSHIP CLEAR · CV LOCK ACTIVE
§ 02 — LONG-RANGE ML CV
It sees the traffic that isn’t broadcasting.
ADS-B and electronic conspicuity only show you the aircraft polite enough to announce themselves. The rest of the sky is dark — and it’s the dangerous part. The model finds a handful of pixels against sky clutter, classifies it, then promotes it to a full track fused into one honest air picture.
PARAGLIDER · 0.91
CV CROP ×24 · SMALL-OBJECT / KM-RANGE REGIME
§ 03 — THE FULL RANGE
One stack. Every mission that needs eyes.
The same perception pipeline that avoids traffic also does the paying work. Swap the mission profile, not the hardware.
APP.01 · YOLOV9 + THERMAL
Infrastructure Inspection
Powerline corridors, bridges, towers and rail. Defects are flagged in-flight, not in post.
OUTPUT · GEOTAGGED DEFECT REGISTER
APP.02 · THERMAL + RAFT-STEREO
Renewables & Solar
Photovoltaic anomaly identification, soiling patterns, and blade-defect passes with depth-verified standoff.
OUTPUT · ANOMALY MAP
APP.03 · YOLOV9 + ORB-SLAM3
Search & Rescue
Person-detection for moorland, coastline and low light. Every detection resolves to a map reference.
OUTPUT · LIVE DETECTION GRID REFS
APP.04 · RAFT-STEREO + SLAM
Survey & Photogrammetry
Dense depth plus SLAM poses mean survey-grade 3D without ground control on every job.
OUTPUT · POINT CLOUD · ORTHOMOSAIC
APP.05 · YOLOV9 + TRACKING
Security & Perimeter
Autonomous patrol with person, vehicle and intrusion detection plus instant handoff to the control room.
OUTPUT · ALERT STREAM · EVIDENCE CLIPS
APP.06 · DETECT + OCR + TRACK
Ports, Yards & Logistics
Container and asset counting, code reading, laydown-yard audit and vehicle-flow analytics in one flight.
OUTPUT · ASSET LEDGER · FLOW HEATMAP
§ 04 — UNDER THE HOOD
Five stages, one loop.
Every application above is the same pipeline with a different head on the end.
01 · SENSE
Cameras in
Stereo EO · thermal · multispectral · IMU · GNSS · ADS-B in
02 · PERCEIVE
Understand frame
RAFT depth · YOLO detection · SLAM mapping
03 · LOCALISE
Know position
VINS-Fusion ego-motion · GPS-denied capable
04 · PLAN
Decide path
A* · RRT* · PPO local policy · DAA integrated
05 · PROVE
Validate flight
Isaac Sim training · domain randomisation · sim to real
§ 05 — WHY IT MATTERS
BVLOS begins with seeing.
km-scale
SMALL-OBJECT DETECTION REGIME
100%
ONBOARD · NO CLOUD IN LOOP
2 modes
COOPERATIVE + SILENT TRAFFIC
9+
COMMERCIAL CV MISSION PROFILES
§ 06 — QUESTIONS
Straight answers.
Does CV detect-and-avoid replace a certified DAA system?
How far can it actually see?
Where does the imagery go?
§ 07 — NEXT STEP
Put eyes on your problem. Fly once. See everything.
Technical briefs, trial flights, and pilot programmes for operators and asset owners.
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