FIG. 01 — TRANSIT THROUGH A DENIED CORRIDORRED — GNSS DENIAL AMBER — OCTANT TRACK
Octant is a bolt-on navigation module that keeps a small uncrewed aircraft on mission when GNSS is jammed, spoofed, or gone. It computes position onboard from what its cameras see — emitting nothing, depending on nothing, and declaring the moment its own fix degrades.
One sealed unit on the belly of the aircraft: a global-shutter camera, an inertial unit, and a mission computer. It watches the ground move past, measures the aircraft’s own motion, and solves position continuously — the way a pilot does, with instruments instead of satellites.
Passive vision plus inertial sensing. No RF received, none transmitted — nothing to find, jam, or spoof.
The fix is computed on the module itself and fed to the autopilot as a standard position stream. PX4, ArduPilot, Cube-class stacks — no rework of your aircraft.
Every fix carries a live trust measure. If the estimate degrades, the aircraft knows — and executes a defined action instead of drifting on a lie.
Light, low-power, low-cost, no GPU. Built for sub-25 kg platforms — inspection, survey and delivery fleets as much as defence — at a price that matches the aircraft.
The camera tracks hundreds of ground features as they stream past; the inertial unit measures every acceleration and turn.
Vision and motion are fused into a continuous position, velocity, and heading — computed entirely onboard, satellites not consulted.
The estimate is audited in real time. Degrading confidence triggers a defined response: hold, reroute, return, or land.
The autopilot receives the fix exactly as it would GNSS. Your aircraft flies its mission; it never knows the satellites left.
Octant is a payload, not a platform. It mounts to the belly rail of the aircraft you already operate and integrates in a day over a single connector.
Two results are public because they are measured on open data: the estimator’s drift on the EuRoC benchmark, and its frame time on an £80 CPU. Flight envelope, endurance and accuracy on the platform you intend to fly are disclosed to qualified UK partners under NDA.
For UK integrators and platform builders, defence and civil, who need aircraft that keep flying when GNSS can no longer be trusted.
Request a briefingjonathan@apricotstudio.co