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The Badb consortium met again in Nurmsi, Estonia, for a joint field workshop. This time, the focus was on interoperability, integration, and end-to-end system validation. In other words, making sure that the components developed by different project partners can actually work together as one system in realistic field conditions. In a system-of-systems project such as Badb, this phase is critical. Individual components may perform perfectly well on their own, but the real test

by GIM Robotics The current news feed from conflict zones is dominated by views of open fields, scattered forest patches and ruined urban settings. Navigation strategies for both crewed and uncrewed vehicles are naturally created to comply with the situation. Social media channels are filled with videos showing autonomous non-road vehicles moving seemingly freely towards distant goals avoiding solitude bushes of trees on open fields. Marketing people are talking about free na

Processing and presenting vast amounts of geospatial data remains a challenge, especially when data needs to be prepared for different missions and platforms. Traditional processing methods rely on preparing datasets in advance, but for Badb this would generate massive amounts of data and require substantial storage and computing capacity. Our missions vary, and the data ultimately needs to be used by unmanned systems with limited onboard computing resources. Instead of proce

The core idea behind the Badb project is that UAVs and UGVs need to be able to operate with a higher degree of autonomy - less reliant on receiving external signals from satellites (GNSS/GPS) and human operators, and with less need to transmit, making it easier for them survive in contested spaces. The human operator retains authority over objectives, but the machine needs to acquire a capacity for perception and navigation, and to make small tactical decisions on how best to

Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms collect information through reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The value of that information depends on knowing where it was collected. As a consortium partner in the Badb project, KrattWorks contributes its expertise in autonomous aerial systems, focusing on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). One of KrattWorks' ISR platforms is Ghost Dragon, an unmanned multirotor UAV designed for reconnaissance and surveilla

As spring 2026 is over, the Badb project is successfully moving into its second year, with an increasing focus on integrating its different components. Recently, we met near Helsinki for a joint integration session and field tests to ensure we remain on track in developing our GNSS-free navigation system. The data we collected and the ideas we exchanged during these field tests and face-to-face meetings provide a solid foundation for the next phase of the project, where we fu

Localising a modern field or service robot should be an easy task in peaceful times. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Operating near Russia's borders makes satellite positioning unreliable. Expensive exteroceptive sensors, such as top-tier 3D LiDARs, are also off the table – “thanks” again to our eastern neighbours. Yet autonomous mobile robots still need to handle logistics, evacuation, and threat mitigation, requiring a different approach. Future military Uncrewed Grou

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