Autonomous Strike Drone Uses Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano for Successful Targeting
Scaleout Systems, a Swedish AI startup, has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of its autonomous strike drone using Nvidia's Jetson Orin Nano. In a recent demo, the drone was able to independently identify and attack targets without any human input or external communication. The drone used a small AI model to detect and geolocate potential threats before ranking them according to their priority.
The mission flown by Scaleout's drone was part of the Affordable Loitering Modular Ammunition (ALMA) program, in collaboration with BAE Systems Bofors. During the demo, the drone autonomously flew to an armored engineering vehicle and dropped an explosive. The entire mission took under 320 seconds, with around 200 seconds spent on reconnaissance.
The use of onboard edge intelligence and AI processing allowed the drone to complete its mission without needing communication with external systems. This makes it more resilient against electronic warfare attacks. According to Scaleout, manual input is optional, but a designated pilot remained as a failsafe controller.