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In adversarial environments, the speed of your learning loop determines whether you keep the initiative - or cede it to your adversary. Within the Badb project, Rigr AI has a particular responsibility: detecting and tracking vehicles, especially military vehicles. One obvious way to do this is to collect and annotate real-world data: video from operational environments and train models on the resulting datasets. This approach has many benefits - increasing domain knowledge,

The Badb project is addressing one of the most challenging problems in modern autonomous operations: reliable navigation in GNSS free environments. A core element of this challenge is determining the position of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable. However, accurate positioning alone is not sufficient. Effective autonomous navigation also depends on a broader understanding of the operational enviro

Last February, KappaZeta represented our project at the European Defence Agency’s 56th CapTech Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) meeting, hosted by WTD 61 in Manching, Germany. KappaZeta introduced the Badb consortium to CapTech members from 18 countries, presenting its partners KrattWorks, GIM Robotics, Rigr AI and Solita along with the project’s core objectives and scope of work. The mission of the GNC CapTech is to support and advance Research & Technology (R&T) and i

Over the past quarter, the BadB project has continued to build steady momentum. We marked the end of this phase with a week-long development sprint in Tartu, where our teams once again brought aerial and ground platforms (UAV and UGV) together for joint field testing. These shared tests are a vital part of our journey toward GNSS-free navigation. While lab development gives us the controlled environment needed to design and refine new capabilities, real progress depends on ho

KrattWorks, as a consortium partner in the Badb project, focuses on all aspects related to UAVs (the “flying” drones), which represent our core area of expertise. Active in the UAV sector since early 2019 and focused exclusively on the defence-tech vertical since 2022, we have built strong momentum heading into 2026. This includes approximately 30-fold growth over the past year and recognition as DefenceTech Company of the Year at the Estonian Startup Awards. This progress is

GIM Robotics, a Finnish 2014 founded deep-tech spin-off from Aalto University’s renowned mobile robotics lab founded in 1985, is emerging as one of Europe’s most strategic enablers of autonomous navigation. Its software allows vehicles and mobile machines to map, localize and operate reliably even in GNSS-denied environments – a capability of growing importance given electronic warfare threats and Europe’s vulnerability to GNSS jamming. With 40 engineers, including 10 Ph

The BadB project wrapped up its second development quarter with a big step forward: a week-long joint sprint in Estonia that moved the work out of the lab and into real-world conditions. For the first time, the project’s aerial and ground platforms (UAV and a UGV), were tested side by side, offering a first real glimpse of how they can work together in practice. These field tests were a key moment for the project. Both platforms gathered a large amount of data, including sync

Most of us have experienced that moment when our phone suddenly loses GPS signal. For flying drones and those on the ground this isn’t just inconvenience, it can stop an entire mission. On today’s battlefields and even in everyday environments like cities, forests or disaster zones, GPS can be jammed, blocked or simply unavailable. Our initiative called “Badb” is working on a solution by developing GNSS-free navigation for unmanned vehicles. Instead of relying on satellites,

KappaZeta is proud to be the coordinator of the Badb consortium. We are thrilled to collaborate with #KrattWorks, #Rigr AI, #GIM Robotics, and #Solita. The consortium is solving the multifaceted problem of autonomous navigation of UAVs and UGVs in GNSS-free environments. KappaZeta’s journey as a satellite remote sensing company started with supporting the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through field monitoring. Today, agriculture remains one of our key pillars, complem

What happens when GPS goes dark? That’s exactly the challenge our Badb project is taking on: building reliable navigation for autonomous land and aerial vehicles when satellite signals are out of reach. Last week our team attended its first public event, the 2nd Autonomous Systems Community of Interest (#ASCI) Conference in Tallinn, organized by the European Defence Agency (EDA). Followed by the 3rd UAS Operational Users Symposium, the event brought together experts developin