Collective
Early accessSearching a large area, guarding a perimeter or watching the sky normally takes one pilot per drone and a crew on standby. With Collective, one operator draws the job on a map and the swarm flies it. The drones split the work, find people on their own cameras, and cover for any drone that fails or loses its link, so the mission keeps going.
The problem
One pilot per aircraft works for one drone and one task. Over a large site it breaks down. Someone has to decide who flies where, who hands off to whom, and what happens when a unit has to land. The cost of the job grows with every drone you add.
What changes
You draw the area on a map and choose the drones. They divide the work between them and fly it, and the operator watches the result on the map. If a drone fails, loses its link or has to land, the others take over its share and the mission carries on.
What you get
Each drone looks for people with a neural network on its own camera, and the map shows every detection with a photo. Tell the swarm how many people to find. The drones work out which detections are the same person and can follow each one, handing over when a follower runs low on battery. LiDAR keeps them clear of obstacles.
Each drone is responsible for its part of the area for a limited time. When a drone fails or runs low on battery, the others take over its share.
The swarm continues without Collective. The map shows what each drone last reported and how old that data is, so you always know what you are looking at.
The drones sweep the airspace at different altitudes and agree on the aircraft they see. They can follow one at a safe distance inside the approved airspace. A drone of the swarm is never treated as a target.
Approved acoustic sensors watch the perimeter. When one hears a drone, the nearest safe standby drone starts an air-surveillance response. The operator confirms the launch by default.
Hold, recall, land, redirect or abort any drone at any time. New users need an admin's approval, and every order is signed.
Compatibility
Any aircraft that runs a PX4 autopilot. The full swarm: drones coordinate with each other, work without a link to Collective, and fly every mission type.
Aircraft supported by the DJI SDK, flown through an app on the DJI controller. The pilot confirms each flight and can take over at any time.
A new drone shows a pairing code and an admin approves it in the fleet view. Registration is closed by default, and an admin can revoke a drone at any time.
The same drone software runs in the simulator and on a real drone. One command starts a simulated swarm with people to find and obstacles to avoid, so you can test a mission before you put aircraft in the air.
Collective suits work where speed and completeness matter and one lost unit cannot stop the mission. It is available now to a limited number of fleet operators, integrators and research partners.