Poland Joins Global Race for AI-Driven Autonomous Drones
It’s a normal Monday afternoon in a suburban neighbourhood of northern Warsaw: people water their gardens, wait for the bus or stand in line at the local supermarket.
About a kilometre past the last houses, out of the curious gaze of the locals, three men park their car in an open field. They pull out their computers and immediately start working on them – either out of the trunk on top of it, wherever there is space. Judging by their age and appearance, they could be DJs preparing for a summer rave.
Yet what they’re really up to is more complex. The three Ukrainian men are about to test Bavovna, an AI-driven alternative navigation system for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) capable of operating in environments where global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are suppressed or are subject to electronic warfare.
The Bavovna system, about the size of a lunch box, is fitted onto an Aurelia X6 MAX drone (Aurelia Aerospace drones are used by NATO) and is designed to help the drone complete its mission autonomously.