A portable onboard mission payload that adds real-time perception to standard UAV carriers — detecting, tracking and visualising mission-relevant objects directly onboard, over the existing video link. No cloud. No platform lock-in.
▶Flight galleryThe 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.
Whole-frame detection marks supported object classes across the scene in real time 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 target-state information 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 — designed for continuity through brief occlusion and scene disruption: resume the same track, not a new detection. The selected target remains the priority, and the picture reads expensive — because perception is trust.
One perception core. Low latency. Two compute backends.
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.
Measured internal processing latency across validated backends — low enough for a human to fly on and for the loop to close onboard. (Input-buffer to HDMI hand-off; sensor and video-link latency excluded.)
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. Maturity increases left to right.
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. Working in the air now.
The system finds and holds candidates; the operator designates and commits. Machine speed for perception, human for the decision.
The onboard perception state becomes an input to the platform control loop — detect → lock → track with no human in the inner loop.
One perception core keeps its picture onboard — degrading gracefully on a contested link rather than going blind.
Scales across a family — the product core remains consistent while payload integration adapts to the mission class.
Fixed camera core + gyro-EIS.
1-axis stabilised + 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, stabilisation, mission-carrier design and compact payload integration onto the airframe.