Make any drone smart.
One install command turns a Raspberry Pi, Jetson, or any Linux SBC into a full-stack drone companion computer. Video streaming, fleet connectivity, autonomous missions, OTA updates, and swarm coordination out of the box.
The Open Compute Layer
Everything above flight, handled.
A flight controller handles stabilization and motor control. The ADOS Drone Agent handles everything else.
The drone industry today looks like smartphones in 2006. Every major smart-drone OEM (DJI, Skydio, Autel, Antigravity) ships a vertical stack. That's a reasonable choice for a vertically integrated company, and it's produced great products. It also leaves everyone else stitching together video, telemetry, and fleet management on their own.
The ADOS Drone Agent is the horizontal layer. It sits between the flight controller and user applications. Write a suite once, deploy it on any compatible drone. Build plugins without forking the core. Get fleet connectivity out of the box. Scale from a Pi Zero running basic telemetry to a Jetson Orin running SLAM and swarm coordination. Same agent, different tiers.
- ▶Standard platform: write once, deploy on any ADOS drone
- ▶Plugin ecosystem: third-party extensions without forking
- ▶Fleet connectivity: every drone talks to the cloud (or your own server) out of the box
- ▶Tiered scaling: from Pi Zero to Jetson Orin, same agent
- ▶Cloud optional: works fully offline in field mode
- ▶Security by default: TLS, certificates, encrypted storage, signed OTA
Architecture
Seven layers. One install.
AltnauticaOS is a layered stack. The Drone Agent implements Layers 1 through 6. Your GCS or dashboard connects at Layer 7.
Capabilities
What the agent does.
Every feature listed here is part of the architecture. Built modular, ships as one package.
Video
50km+ HD Video Link
- ✓WFB-ng integration for long-range video
- ✓Camera auto-discovery (CSI, USB, IP)
- ✓Hardware encoding, OSD overlay, recording
Scripting
5-Tier Programming Model
- ✓Text commands (Tello-style) for beginners
- ✓Python SDK for developers and researchers
- ✓YAML missions for repeatable operations
Suites
6 Built-in Application Modules
- ✓Sentry, Survey, Agriculture, Cargo, SAR, Inspection
- ✓YAML manifest format, no code required
- ✓Sensor validation and mission template injection
Fleet
DroneNet Connectivity
- ✓MQTT gateway for cloud telemetry
- ✓4-tier integration: basic tracking to full swarm
- ✓Works self-hosted or with Altnautica cloud
Swarm
Mesh Networking and Formation
- ✓LoRa for coordination, WiFi Direct for data
- ✓Peer discovery and task distribution protocol
- ✓Formation flight and multi-vehicle ops
Updates
A/B Partition OTA
- ✓Delta updates to minimize bandwidth
- ✓Automatic rollback on boot failure
- ✓Update channels: stable, beta, nightly
Go Deeper
Explore each feature.
Terminal Dashboard
Full TUI over SSH. 9 screens, 10 CLI commands. Manage drones from any terminal.
Explore →Scripting
Five tiers from text commands to Blockly visual programming. Code examples and comparison.
Explore →API & SDK
REST endpoints, WebSocket MAVLink relay, Python SDK classes, and authentication.
Explore →Application Suites
Six built-in YAML-configured modules. Sentry, Survey, Agriculture, Cargo, SAR, Inspection.
Explore →Hardware
Runs on what you already have.
The agent auto-detects your board at boot and enables only the features your hardware supports. No configuration required.
| Board | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi CM4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Raspberry Pi CM5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Jetson Nano / Orin | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Radxa CM3 / CM5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Generic ARM64 SBC | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
Tier 1: MAVLink + telemetry. Tier 2: + onboard compute. Tier 3: + ADOS hardware (full autonomy). Tier 4: + mesh radio (swarm coordination).
Software is GPLv3. Hardware integration points use CERN Open Hardware License. Documentation is CC-BY-SA 4.0. No proprietary lock-in. Fork it, modify it, ship it.
Get Started
One command. Five minutes.
SSH into your companion computer and run the installer. The agent auto-detects your board, installs dependencies, and starts all services.
curl -fsSL https://install.altnautica.com | sudo bashSupports Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Armbian, and Debian 12 on ARM64.
Early Access
Get notified when it ships.
The ADOS Drone Agent is in active development. Sign up to be notified when the first beta is available.
The future of drone software is open.
One agent. Any SBC. Any flight controller. Any mission.
View on GitHub