Why It Matters: A GPS-Denied Challenge

In July 2024, we joined the European Defence Tech Hackathon in Munich, hosted by Inflection.xyz, Entrepreneur First, TUM Venture Labs, and ARX Robotics. Over an action-packed weekend, our engineering team tackled a key challenge: navigation in GPS-denied environments, especially on platforms with limited sensors.

The problem is critical for UAVs, which often rely on GPS for navigation. In denied environments, alternative solutions like vision-based navigation become essential. Our goal was to explore how these systems can function efficiently even under severe constraints.

What’s Driving Innovation?

The hackathon highlighted the rapid evolution of defence tech:

• 🚀 Emerging Use Cases: From drone interceptors to digital simulations, the field is advancing at breakneck speed.
• 📚 Collaborative Insights: We learned from teams working on advanced UAV systems and shared ideas to refine our own tech stack.
• 🗣️ Expert Feedback: Mentors from Auterion, Spleenlab GmbH, and others helped validate our approach and provided actionable insights.

These learnings reinforced the importance of collaboration in driving innovation and solving real-world challenges.

How We Contributed: Vision-Based Navigation

We developed a vision-based navigation prototype designed to:

1. Operate efficiently without GPS.
2. Utilize minimal sensor inputs while maintaining accuracy.

The project sparked valuable conversations and partnerships, providing us with the feedback needed to refine our solution further.

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Next Steps: Scaling Innovation

The event was just the beginning. We’re committed to joining more hackathons this year, using these opportunities to enhance our technology and expand our network.

Want to learn more about the event? Visit the official page.

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