According to war correspondent Andrey Filatov, the autonomous optical navigation system "Susanin" has begun to be used on Russian "Geran" attack drones. The technology is designed to perform flight missions in the absence of a GPS signal and communication with the operator.
The main principle of the system, according to the war correspondent's description, is orientation by the underlying surface — an image of the earth's surface beneath the aircraft.
This method allows for dispensing with the regular use of external radio beacons during flight. However, the specific equipment components, image processing algorithms, and accuracy indicators of the "Susanin" system remained undisclosed in the published report.
"Susanin" shows the direction in which autonomous drone navigation is developing: the device relies not only on satellite signals but also on the features of the earth's surface. Details about the system have not yet been disclosed, so its accuracy and capabilities cannot be assessed based on the published data.
Earlier, "Pervyy Tekhnicheskiy" reported on developments that use cameras, digital maps, compasses, and computer vision algorithms to determine a drone's position without a satellite signal.