Optical navigation for UAVs · Hardware + software
When GPS dies, the drone flies on.
FLY BY is a navigation module with its own camera and software that holds absolute position when GNSS is jammed or spoofed — passive, no RF emissions, built for open autopilots.
- 15 m
- median error under jamming and spoofing
- Up to 110 m/s
- airspeed, ≈400 km/h
- 110–1500 m AGL
- operating altitude
GPS jamming makes every mission a coin flip.
Electronic warfare jams or spoofs GNSS. The drone loses coordinates, drifts and fails the mission. Link-based fallbacks such as satellite datalinks drop out too. Autonomous navigation that needs no signal at all is the only dependable answer.
- Jamming
- Signal flooded across GNSS bands.
- Spoofing
- False coordinates injected mid-flight.
- Outage
- Mission aborted. Asset lost.
Three methods, one absolute fix.
- Camera
- Odometry · terrain · map matching
- IMU fusion
- Position
- Visual odometry
- Measures motion frame to frame. Carries the solution below 150 m AGL.
- Terrain mapping
- Builds the relief below the aircraft from the image stream and fuses it with the IMU.
- Map matching
- Locks each frame to a reference map and returns absolute coordinates, zeroing accumulated drift.
The result: error does not grow with flight time. It is bounded by match quality, not by how long the aircraft has been without GNSS.
A module, not a science project.
Own downward camera
No dependence on the airframe's payload.
Next generation: option to use the airframe's own camera.
Onboard compute and software
Position fix in 100–200 ms.
Encrypted onboard map storage
Mission maps stay protected if the aircraft is lost.
Open autopilots
Integrates as a navigation source; the autopilot stays in control of the solution.
Passive
Zero RF emission, nothing for EW to detect.
Your maps, your choice.
The algorithm adapts to the reference base the customer prefers:
- Commercial satellite imagery
- Open map data
- Freshly flown orthophotos
The map base must be no older than 12 months. With a fresh satellite or orthophoto base, the accuracy target is 5 m.
Measured in flight, with GPS excluded from the solution.
- Median horizontal error under EW
- 15 m
- Best fix
- 3 m
- Target on fresh map base
- 5 m
- Airspeed
- Up to 110 m/s (≈400 km/h)
- Altitude
- 110–1500 m AGL
- Below 150 m AGL
- Visual odometry mode
- Time to fix
- 100–200 ms
- RF emission
- None
- Map storage
- Encrypted, onboard
- Map age
- ≤ 12 months
- Operating mode
- Daylight (night channel in development)
- Autopilot
- Open-standard autopilots
Measured in flight in Ukraine under live jamming and spoofing, GPS excluded from the solution.
Our own models, trained on our own flights.
Every sortie adds to the flight archive the models are trained on.
Four trained model versions cover different operating conditions, backed by an archive of thousands of prepared examples drawn from our own sorties.
The training transfers to unfamiliar ground. Measured against an untrained baseline over terrain hundreds of kilometres from anywhere our models had flown, our version found more positions and halved the error.
Preparing a new sortie for training is automatic, so the archive grows with the flying we already do.
Models are retrained on a schedule we set, and every release is validated before it ships. The model does not modify itself in flight: a model that rewrites itself mid-mission cannot be audited or certified.
Dual-use by design.
- Frontline UAV manufacturers
- Serial-production lines requiring GPS-denied capability.
- Allied defence ministries
- Procurement bodies and evaluation units across allied nations.
- OEM integrators
- Tier-one drone primes and OEM integrators. Design-in on per-platform terms.
- ISR platforms
- GPS-denied reconnaissance missions.
- Light aviation
- GNSS-loss backup navigation.
- Swarm formations
- Coordinated multi-platform operations.
- Assured PNT
- Resilient PNT for critical infrastructure.
- Logistics & BVLOS
- Beyond-visual-line-of-sight cargo and survey.
- Civil aviation backup
- GNSS-loss fallback for crewed and uncrewed flight.
- Emergency response
- Search, rescue, and mapping in degraded RF.
Built for speed. Built for night.
FLY BY already fixes position at 110 m/s. We are extending it to 600 km/h for jet-powered platforms, holding accuracy without error accumulating along the route. A night channel is in development — daylight systems are already available at workable prices, while night remains the gap the market has not closed.
Core algorithm
CompleteVisual odometry, terrain mapping and map matching validated on real flight data.
Navigation module
CompleteOwn camera, onboard compute and encrypted map storage in one unit.
Autopilot integration
CompleteIntegrated with open-standard autopilots as a navigation source.
Flight under live EW
CompleteMeasured in flight in Ukraine under live jamming and spoofing, GPS excluded from the solution.
OEM evaluation & design-in
CurrentEvaluation on customer airframes, under NDA.
Speed, night, airframe camera
Planned600 km/h for jet-powered platforms, a night channel, and an option to use the airframe's own camera.
FLY BY is a product of GIS-POINT LTD (United Kingdom). The programme is funded through pre-seed equity and planned applications to non-dilutive defence-innovation and dual-use funding programmes.
60+ years of team experience in geospatial, navigation and UAV systems. All IP in-house.
20+ years in geospatial. Built a national-scale cartography company, 2016–2023. Founded GIS-POINT (UK), maker of FLY BY.
10+ years in scalable software. Leads map matching, IMU fusion and autopilot integration.
PhD, 30+ years in navigation and UAV systems. Built and exited a prior UAV company. Chair, All-Ukrainian AeroGeodetic Association.
Evaluate it on one airframe.
OEM design-in · NDA on request
- OEM design-in
A capability brief and an evaluation plan for your airframe, under NDA.
- Investors
An investor brief and data-room access, under NDA. The pre-seed round is open.