Our development philosophy
Combining the flexibility of modern open source with the discipline of safety-critical avionics and regulatory compliance, applied to unmanned aircraft.
The foundations of our method
A balance between fast innovation, regulatory compliance and field reliability.
Current standards & open interoperability
Mature ecosystems to avoid vendor lock-in and speed up innovation.
We firmly adopt the standards that drive the modern drone industry: PX4 Autopilot for navigation and control of multirotors, VTOL and fixed-wing, MAVLink for telemetry, DroneCAN/Cyphal for digital buses and ROS 2 for payload data processing and SLAM. This gives the client compatibility with open-source GCS (such as QGroundControl), extensibility and an active global ecosystem.
- PX4 Autopilot (multirotor / VTOL / fixed-wing)
- MAVLink v2 protocol
- ROS 2 Robotics Middleware
- DroneCAN / Cyphal digital bus
Custom firmware & safety-critical engineering
Determinism where failure is not an option.
When mission requirements call for very specific control, actuator redundancy or deterministic responses, we develop dedicated firmware and fault-tolerant architectures with rigorous emergency handling and isolation of critical processes.
- Redundant hardware and sensor architectures
- Deterministic fail-safe handling and geocaging
- Automatic emergency return or stop systems
- Flight Termination System (FTS) and safe-stop integration
Regulatory compliance & risk management
Complex operations, fully legal and with certifiable safety.
We design the aircraft taking applicable regulatory requirements into account from the earliest phase: the SORA methodology for operations in the EASA Specific category (SAIL I-IV), the European standard scenarios and the requirements for containment and mitigation of ground and air risk.
- EASA Easy Access Rules for UAS (EU Reg. 2019/947 & 2019/945)
- SORA methodology for the Specific category
- European standard scenarios STS-01, STS-02 and PDRA
- Direct Remote ID and identification requirements
Experimental validation & simulation
Virtual and bench tests come before every real session.
We cut risk and development time by relying on Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) simulation of the flight stack before every real session. In the field we proceed step by step: bench tests, hover, transition and flight envelope, capturing and analysing the logs at every milestone.
- SITL simulation of the PX4 stack (Gazebo)
- Thrust tests and propulsion group verification
- Vibration and structural response checks
- Flight-log and telemetry analysis
How we choose and combine technologies
There is no universal solution: we analyse the mission profile and the regulatory constraints to define the right architecture.
When to use PX4 & ROS 2
- ✓Inspection, research, monitoring and survey projects with fast development timelines.
- ✓Interfacing complex sensors (multispectral cameras, LiDAR, gimbals) and companion computers (NVIDIA Jetson).
- ✓Immediate integration with ground-control software (QGroundControl, MAVLink).
- ✓No recurring closed-license costs as the number of units grows.
When to develop custom code & FTS
- ✓Airborne operations in the EASA Specific category at high SAIL (SAIL III/IV) or over populated areas.
- ✓Mandatory integration of a Flight Termination System (FTS) compliant with containment standards.
- ✓Dedicated control systems with multi-redundant architectures and instant fail-safe.
- ✓Full protection of intellectual property on dedicated control logic.