Embedded defensive autonomy for Group 1 sUAS operating under contested air. Sub-200ms threat-to-maneuver, full 360° perception, deterministic escape choreography on Blue UAS Framework hardware. Race-validated, Replicator-aligned.
AEGIS-FPV is an embedded autonomy stack that turns commodity Group 1 quadcopters into kinetic-evasion platforms. The system pairs a real-time PX4 flight controller with a Linux ROS 2 companion running TensorRT-quantized perception and a deterministic evasion policy. End-to-end latency from photon to PWM is under 15ms.
The program ships in three tiers — attritable (Tier I · Spear), recoverable ISR (Tier II · Recon · reference), and BUF-cleared escort (Tier III · Extended). All three run identical autonomy firmware. Compute and sensor count scale to mission profile.
Origin and validation. The autonomy stack is the same codebase used in the A2RL Drone Championship (Abu Dhabi) — a continuously-running, adversarial, race-grade autonomy benchmark. Race-proven before defense qualification.
| Capability | Detail | Latency / Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-threat prioritization | Continuous danger scoring (TTI · damage · range), highest threat dodged first | 33ms tick |
| Last-instant panic dodge | Triggered when projectile within 6m closing >60 m/s. Five choreographies. | 12ms trigger |
| Proactive standoff | Continuous drift away from threat-cluster centroid; 1 m/s per active threat | 60Hz |
| Geofenced safety envelope | Cylindrical wall + ceiling + floor clamps with soft repulsion · ICAO Annex 11 | always-on |
| FPV gimbal lock-on | Auto-tracking 65° FOV camera on highest-priority threat; threat-overlay HUD | 30Hz |
| Bullet-time chaining | Re-trigger fresh evasive impulse on second-pellet detection mid-dodge | 1.5s horizon |
| Escape mode | Retreat to safe altitude/distance · auto-engage when HP <40 or ≥4 active threats | 22 m/s cap |
| Spec | AEGIS-S · Spear (Tier I) | AEGIS-R · Recon (Tier II ★) | AEGIS-X · Extended (Tier III) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctrine | Attritable · 1-way OK | Recoverable · multi-sortie | Persistent · escort |
| Compute | Jetson Orin Nano 8GB | Jetson Orin NX 16GB | Jetson AGX Orin 64GB |
| AI throughput | 40 TOPS / 7W | 100 TOPS / 25W | 275 TOPS / 60W |
| 360° dome | 4-cam (FRONT/REAR/L/R) | 6-cam (full sphere) | 6-cam + Livox Mid-360 LiDAR |
| Flight controller | Holybro Kakute H7 | Holybro Kakute H7 | Auterion Skynode S (BUF) |
| Comms | ELRS 2.4G · 250mW | ELRS + 5.8GHz HD VTX | ELRS + Doodle Labs LTE |
| AUW · cruise endurance | 580g · 11 min | 700g · 9.5 min | 1.4kg · 22 min |
| Top speed | 155 km/h | 142 km/h | 95 km/h |
| Volume MOQ | 1,000 units | 100 units | 10 units |
| Eval pathway | SBIR Phase I · Replicator | SBIR Phase II | DIU Blue UAS list |
| Reference unit cost · 1k vol | ~$1.5K | ~$3.3K | ~$5.9K |
| Reference unit cost · 10k vol | ~$1.2K | ~$2.6K | ~$4.6K |
| Layer | Component | Vendor / Origin | Spec | Unit USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airframe & Propulsion | ||||
| Frame | iFlight Nazgul Evoque F5D V2 | iFlight · CN/EU | 5" · 220mm | $78 |
| Motors ×4 | T-Motor F60 Pro V 2207 1750KV | T-Motor · CN | 2207 · 6S rated | $92 |
| Props ×8 | HQProp R38 5×3.8 tri-blade | HQProp · EU | polycarbonate | $14 |
| ESC | T-Motor F55A Pro II 4-in-1 BLHeli_32 | T-Motor · CN | 55A · 6S | $95 |
| Flight Control & Comms | ||||
| FC | Holybro Kakute H7 V2 (PX4) | Holybro · US/CN | STM32H743 · 480MHz | $80 |
| RC RX | RadioMaster RP3 ELRS 2.4GHz | RadioMaster · CN | 500Hz · 250mW | $22 |
| GPS/Compass | Holybro M10 GPS · u-blox MAX-M10S | u-blox · CH | 10Hz · GPS+GAL+GLO+BDS | $45 |
| Onboard AI Compute & Vision | ||||
| AI module | NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB | NVIDIA · US/TW | 100 TOPS · 25W | $899 |
| Carrier | Connect Tech Boson · Orin NX | Connect Tech · CA/US | industrial temp | $280 |
| 360° dome ×6 | Arducam OV9281 GS mono ×6 | Arducam · CN/TW | 1MP · 120fps · MIPI | $270 |
| Deserializer | Maxim MAX96712 GMSL2 quad | Analog Devices · US | 4-lane × 4 input · 6Gbps | $95 |
| Camera carrier | Custom rigid-flex 4-layer | Sierra Circuits · US | TPU shock-iso | $110 |
| FPV cam/VTX | Walksnail Avatar HD Pro Kit | Walksnail · CN | 1080p · 5.8GHz | $180 |
| Power & Misc | ||||
| Battery | Tattu R-Line 6S 1300mAh 150C | Tattu · US | 22.2V · LiPo HV | $48 |
| BEC | Matek BEC12S-Pro 5V/12V | Matek · CN | 3A · 12S input | $18 |
| Wiring · misc | Silicone wire, XT60H, standoffs, TPU | — | — | $31 |
| Assembly · QA | US-build labor + cal + test flight | in-house · US | ~3hr | $420 |
| Reference build · NX compute | $3,322 | |||
AEGIS-FPV runs as a PX4 companion architecture: a hard-realtime flight stack on the FC, a Linux ROS 2 process on the Jetson, and a typed message contract between them. Same pattern as Auterion Skynode and ModalAI VOXL2 — both Blue UAS Framework cleared.
| L | Layer | Implementation | Runs on | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Policy | AEGIS evasion · 8.2 kLOC C++ | Jetson | 240Hz |
| 5 | Perception | YOLO11n-pose · TensorRT INT8 · PnP | Jetson | 120Hz |
| 4 | State | EKF2 fusion · IMU/GPS/baro/VIO | FC | 250Hz |
| 3 | Comms | uXRCE-DDS bridge · Cyclone DDS | both | 240Hz topic |
| 2 | Flight | PX4 Autopilot v1.14 · NuttX | FC | 8kHz inner |
| 1 | Board | STM32H743 · Jetson Orin NX | silicon | — |
| Step | Operation | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sensor exposure (global shutter, all 6 cams) | 0.8 ms |
| 2 | MIPI-CSI · ISP capture · 6× tiles | 2.1 ms |
| 3 | CUDA unwarp + spherical stitch | 1.4 ms |
| 4 | YOLO11n-pose · TensorRT INT8 batched | 8.4 ms |
| 5 | PnP threat localization (EPnP, 4 corners) | 1.1 ms |
| 6 | AEGIS policy decision (multi-threat scoring) | 0.6 ms |
| 7 | uXRCE-DDS transport to FC | 0.3 ms |
| — | Total · photon to PWM | 14.7 ms |
/aegis/threats · aegis_msgs/Threat[] · 60Hz
/aegis/maneuver_cmd · aegis_msgs/EvadeCmd · event
/aegis/escape_state · aegis_msgs/EscapeStatus · 30Hz
/fmu/in/trajectory_setpoint · px4_msgs/TrajectorySetpoint · 240Hz
/fmu/out/vehicle_attitude · px4_msgs/VehicleAttitude · 250Hz
/fmu/out/sensor_combined · px4_msgs/SensorCombined · 1kHz
Transport layer: uXRCE-DDS over UART or Ethernet between FC and companion; Cyclone DDS within the companion process tree. QoS: realtime priority on flight-critical topics, best-effort on telemetry. Lockstep timestamps via PX4 hrtimer synchronization.
| Domain | Components | Bus |
|---|---|---|
| Sensor | 6× OV9281 (MIPI), MAX96712 deser, IMU ICM-42688-P, BMP388, u-blox MAX-M10S | MIPI / SPI / I²C |
| Companion (Linux) | L4T R36 · ROS 2 Humble · TensorRT 8.6 · CUDA 12.2 · aegis_policy + aegis_perception + vio_bridge nodes | uXRCE-DDS |
| FC (NuttX RTOS) | STM32H743 480MHz · PX4 v1.14 · EKF2 · 8kHz rate ctrl loop · DShot600 motor PWM · SBUS RC | ESC PWM |
| Program | Vendor | Per-unit / per-round | Source · year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switchblade 600 LMAMS | AeroVironment | $170K – $200K | CRS R47558 · 2023–24 |
| Switchblade 300 | AeroVironment | $60K – $80K | CRS R47558 · 2023–24 |
| Coyote Block 2 (kinetic) | RTX | ~$100K | Breaking Defense · 2024 |
| Roadrunner-M (CUAS) | Anduril | low 100s of K | WSJ · 2023-12 |
| Skydio X10D · SRR | Skydio | $15K – $25K | Skydio gov price · GSA |
| Teal Black Widow · SRR | Red Cat | $12K – $15K | Red Cat 8-K · 2024-09 |
| Phoenix Ghost (Ukraine) | AEVEX | ~$6K (est.) | Reuters · 2022–23 |
| Anduril Altius-600 | Anduril | $25K – $70K | FlightGlobal · 2024 |
| AEGIS-S · Spear (this program) | — | low single-digit K | projected |
DoD Replicator was announced by Deputy SecDef Hicks at NDIA Emerging Technologies 2023-08-28; FY24 + FY25 funding ~$1B for "small, smart, cheap, and many" attritable autonomous systems. AEGIS-S Tier I is a direct fit: sub-1kg AUW, attritable doctrine, low-tens-of-thousands target unit cost, COTS-stack BOM.
DIU Tranche 1 awards (2024 Q4 – 2025 Q1) include AeroVironment Switchblade 600, Anduril Altius-600M/700M, Performance Drone Works C-100. AEGIS-S submission target: Tranche 2 (FY26).
Defensive autonomy converts a single-mission attritable into an asset capable of multiple sorties before loss. Survival-uplift multiplier on per-unit price:
AEGIS-S unit cost = ~$1,500 (1k vol)
Survival uplift = +35% (target; live-fire pending)
Expected sorties/unit = 1.0 → 1.35
Effective $/mission ≈ $1,500 / 1.35 ≈ $1,111
Compared against Switchblade 600 ($170,000/round, single-use): AEGIS-S delivers mission-equivalent attritable autonomy at ~150× lower cost-per-mission. Compared against Skydio X10D ($20,000/unit, recoverable but no evasive autonomy): AEGIS-S adds active defensive layer at ~13× lower cost-per-unit.
All per-unit and per-round dollar figures cited above are drawn from primary DoD contract announcements (defense.gov/News/Contracts), CRS reports, SEC filings, and on-record vendor statements published 2023–2025. A live citation list with URLs is maintained alongside this annex and refreshed quarterly.
| Framework | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NDAA Section 848 | Compliant (reference BOM) | No covered foreign telecommunications components |
| DIU Blue UAS Framework | Cleared FC option (Auterion Skynode S) | Tier III ships with cleared FC; Tier I/II uses Holybro |
| DoD Blue UAS Cleared List | Target · SBIR Phase II | Estimated 18-month cycle to listing |
| EAR · Export Control | EAR99 / dual-use | Allies-friendly under §740 STA |
| FAA Part 89 | Remote ID firmware module included | Part 107 compliant for domestic ops |
| cATO · DoD enterprise | RMF-aligned dev pipeline | Targeting Continuous ATO via Platform One |
Acquisition vehicles available: SBIR/STTR Phase I & II (AFWERX, NavalX, SOFWERX), GSA IT Schedule 70, NavyOTA, AFRL OTAs, DIU CSO, direct OTA via program offices.
| Period | Status | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | Complete | AIGP race autopilot · YOLO11n-pose detector · mAP50 = 0.995 · race-r3f public sim deployed |
| 2026 Q2 | Complete | AEGIS-FPV demonstrator · 8 attack types · 5 panic-dodge choreographies · FPV gimbal HUD |
| 2026 Q3 | In progress | Hardware-in-loop integration · PX4 SITL → Gazebo Garden → bench Jetson Orin NX |
| 2026 Q4 | Planned | First flight · indoor cage · 5×5×3m volume · foam-pellet attackers |
| 2027 H1 | Target | SBIR Phase I → Phase II · AFWERX/NavalX/SOFWERX submissions |
| 2027 H2 | Target | Outdoor live-fire validation · NSWC Dahlgren or AFRL Eglin · Replicator pipeline qualification |
Blake Farabi — Principal · AEGIS-FPV program
Email · blakefarabi@gmail.com
Web · https://aigp-dashboard.pages.dev/aegis-defense
Live sim · https://aigp-dashboard.pages.dev/r3f-evade
Source · https://github.com/blakefarabi/grandprix