Ever tried using a drone in a GPS dead zone? Whether it’s a city packed with skyscrapers, a forest thick with canopy, or a conflict zone where signals are being jammed, GPS failure has long been one of the biggest hurdles in drone navigation. But now, a cutting-edge collaboration between UK-based NILEQ (a subsidiary of defense giant MBDA) and Australia’s Advanced Navigation might just be the breakthrough the industry has been waiting for.
Why Drones Can’t Always Count on GPS
Let’s get real: GPS is wonderful for—until it just stops working. Tall structures will block the signal, tree cover will dampen it, and malicious actors can jam or spoof it. That’s a huge problem for drones doing critical missions such as urban surveillance or remote search-and-rescue. Some companies have attempted to circumvent this with inertial navigation systems (INS) or visual mapping tools. But both methods have significant trade-offs: INS will degrade in accuracy over time, and visual navigation can consume much more computing power than most drones are equipped to handle.
Traditional GPS isn’t quite indestructible. With signal interference to spoofing attacks, it’s surprisingly simple to make a drone lose its way. INS, though resistant to jamming, has something known as “drift” that catches up with it—the longer it operates without being recalibrated, the more it drifts from course. Visual navigation, on the other hand, may be precise, but it tends to require high-end processors, making its application to smaller, cheaper drones limited.
A New Kind of Navigation: Light, Fast, and Smart
The answer? A brilliant combination of technologies that emulate the human eye and inner ear. NILEQ is introducing neuromorphic cameras into the mix—devices that don’t record complete images, but rather record changes in light, similar to how our retinas work. These low-power cameras produce much less data and react quickly to changes in the environment.
That information is then merged with readings from a high-performance inertial navigation system built by Advanced Navigation, one that employs fiber optics to detect movement and direction. Both together generate real-time “terrain signatures” that are compared to a stored satellite map. The result, says MBDA’s Phil Houghton, is exceedingly accurate and very power-efficient, enabling drones to fly through GPS-denied environments without the need for cumbersome, power-guzzling equipment.
AI Is the Secret Sauce
What holds it all together is the AI operating in the background. Advanced Navigation’s software integrates the inputs from both the inertial and neuromorphic systems, marrying them together into a single, consistent location estimate. And it’s designed to be easy to use—no fiddly setup, just plug it in and away, claims CEO Chris Shaw.
High Performance Without the High Price
Surprisingly, this system is not merely for machines of the military variety. Although neuromorphic cameras aren’t cheap (roughly $1,000 each), they’re significantly cheaper than conventional high-end navigation systems costing tens—or even hundreds—of—thousands of dollars. That makes this new system a game-changer for commercial drone operators who require dependable performance within a tighter budget.
What It Can’t Do (Yet)
The latest iteration does have its downside. It doesn’t respond to low light because the cameras don’t detect infrared. But the teams are already making adjustments, with infrared-compatible versions shortly. Product trials are underway, with a commercial rollout anticipated around mid-2025.
The Future of Drones Without GPS
This innovation has the potential to unlock new territories in drone deployment—urban delivery, for example, disaster relief in mountainous areas, or even clandestine spying where jamming is anticipated. It’s an intelligent, scalable solution for a GPS-unreliable world.
As drones increasingly play a key role in everything from logistics to military defense, technologies like this may well be the new standard by which all others are measured.
