Software-Defined Drone Platform

Make any drone autonomous.

Altnautica is an open-source, software-defined drone platform: software for the flight computer, the onboard agent, ground control, and the fleet cloud. One ecosystem, any drone.

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Mission ControlDrone AgentGround AgentWorkstationDocsChangelog

Open source · Four firmware families · GPLv3

Mission Control · liveopen →

THE PRODUCTS

Four agent profiles. One ground station. Any drone.

Every profile runs the same codebase and speaks the same protocols. Run one, or run them together as a fleet.

Ground Control

Shipping

Mission Control

Browser ground station with fleet telemetry, mission planning, 3D simulation, the parameter editor, and an immersive cockpit.

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Onboard

Available

Drone Agent

Software-defined companion for the flight computer. MAVLink proxy, video pipeline, OTA, cloud relay, and Python plugins.

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Ground Station

Available

Ground Agent

The ground side of the radio pair. Distributed receive, self-healing mesh, the full uplink matrix, and a physical UI.

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Compute

Available

Workstation

The operator's machine: GPU compute for reconstruction, every surface, and the direct ground link, on one profile.

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THE ADOS ECOSYSTEM

Four layers. One platform. Any drone.

From the flight computer to the cloud, every layer is open source and designed to work together, or on its own.

MeshNet
Real-time telemetry, MQTT relay, mission dispatch, and fleet analytics
Mission Control
Browser GCS with mission planning, 3D simulation, and gamepad flight
Agents
One codebase, four profiles: onboard, ground station, and compute
Flight Computer
Integrated compute, flight controller, HD video, and 4G/5G on one board

Mission Control works with any MAVLink drone today. The agent runs on any Linux SBC. The board is optional. Together they are one system.

SHIPPING NOW

Not slideware. Shipped code.

The pieces that make this a platform, not a viewer, are working today.

Cockpit

An immersive, game-like cockpit where flight behaviors are Skills bound to hotkeys and a gamepad, shown on a bottom Skill Bar.

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ADOS Atlas

Capture-to-reconstruction world model. Drones capture pose-tagged keyframes, a compute node builds splats, point clouds, and mesh.

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Extension ecosystem

Signed agent plugins and sandboxed ground-station panels from one manifest. Same hardware, different mission, just install an extension.

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Four firmware families

ArduPilot, PX4, Betaflight, and iNav out of the box. 68 MAVLink decoders plus full MSP coverage. Not locked to one flight stack.

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MISSION CONTROL

The most capable open ground control station.

Four firmware stacks. Full offline field mode. Runs in your browser. No install, no license.

  • +9 mission pattern generators with terrain following
  • +3D simulation on a Cesium globe with real terrain and flight replay
  • +AI-assisted PID tuning from flight logs
  • +WebSerial firmware flashing, no external tools
  • +Demo drones built in, zero hardware required
  • +Full offline field mode, no internet required
Launch Mission ControlView on GitHub
68
MAVLink decoders
60
Config panels
50Hz
Gamepad flight control
4
Firmware families

DRONE AGENT

Turn any Linux board into a drone brain.

A companion computer OS that adds video streaming, cloud connectivity, autonomous missions, and AI inference to any MAVLink drone.

  • +Runs on a Raspberry Pi through Jetson Orin, 1 GB minimum
  • +MAVLink proxy routes telemetry to multiple ground stations
  • +WFB video at 30-50 ms latency, 50 km+ range
  • +MQTT cloud relay, no port forwarding needed
  • +Local setup webapp and on-box status cockpit
  • +systemd-managed services with per-process isolation
Learn moreView on GitHub
50km+
HD video link
<5min
Install time
17
Boards supported
REST
Full control API

THE OPEN LAYER

Where the compute layer lives

Smart-drone leaders like DJI and Skydio each run their onboard compute layer first-party, and they do it well. Most assembled drones lack that layer entirely. Altnautica builds it as an open layer anyone can extend.

Onboard compute

First-party smart droneCustom in-house SoC
Assembled droneNone, or a tethered external SBC
AltnauticaIntegrated Linux plus real-time FC

Software platform

First-party smart droneFirst-party only, vendor-controlled
Assembled droneAutopilot only, no platform layer
AltnauticaFull stack: OS, GCS, agent, cloud

Video link

First-party smart droneIn-house digital link
Assembled droneAnalog or basic digital, short range
AltnauticaWFB, 50 km+, open protocol

Licensing

First-party smart droneSingle-vendor ecosystem
Assembled droneEach brand siloed
AltnauticaOpen source, forkable, GPLv3

Customization

First-party smart droneLimited to the vendor SDK
Assembled droneLimited
AltnauticaModify everything

AI and autonomy

First-party smart droneYes, vendor-managed
Assembled droneNo onboard intelligence
AltnauticaYes, open and extensible

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is Altnautica?

Altnautica is an open-source, software-defined drone platform. It provides an onboard drone agent, a browser-based ground control station called Mission Control, a ground station, a compute workstation, and cloud fleet management, so you can make almost any drone smart and autonomous.

How do I make an existing drone autonomous?

Add a companion computer running the Altnautica drone agent next to your flight controller, connect them over MAVLink, and control the drone from Mission Control. You keep your existing ArduPilot, PX4, Betaflight, or iNav flight controller and gain autonomy, long-range video, and fleet connectivity in software.

Is there an open-source ground control station?

Yes. Altnautica Mission Control is an open-source, browser-based ground control station for any drone. It runs in the browser with no install and covers fleet telemetry, mission planning, a 3D simulator, deep flight-controller configuration, and a game-like cockpit, all under GPLv3.

What is an open-source alternative to DJI?

Altnautica is an open-source, software-defined drone platform that runs on hardware you choose rather than a single closed ecosystem. Instead of a sealed system, you get an open ground station, an onboard agent, long-range video, and cloud fleet management that you can inspect, modify, and self-host, working with ArduPilot, PX4, Betaflight, and iNav.

Is Altnautica free and open source?

Yes. All of the software, including Mission Control, the drone agent, the ground agent, and the workstation, is free and open source under GPLv3. There is no paid edition and no locked features. Revenue comes from optional cloud fleet hosting, hardware, and support.

Open Source

We publish everything. Schematics. Software. Protocols.

Every line of code, every circuit design, every protocol. Open source means you own your stack instead of renting it.

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Open source. Shipping now.

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