Active program
A simulation-first flight test campaign. Mk-0 flies the production autopilot stack — ArduPilot — through autonomous missions in software, so that every dollar of future hardware is spent on a design that has already flown thousands of times.
Software-in-the-loop simulation runs the identical flight code that flies real aircraft. Missions, failures, winds, and link losses can all be rehearsed at zero marginal cost — which means the first physical flight is a confirmation, not an experiment.
SIM-1
Fully autonomous takeoff, multi-waypoint missions, and return-to-launch in ArduPilot SITL. Exit criteria: 25 consecutive clean missions with logged telemetry review.
SIM-2
Long-duration loiter profiles, wind and turbulence models, and failure rehearsal — link loss, GPS degradation, and safe-return logic under stress.
SIM-3
Two-plus aircraft flying coordinated patterns in one simulation — the first data for the Eous swarm concept, before a single Eous airframe exists.
MK-0
When simulation exit criteria are met, the campaign moves to a subscale physical demonstrator flying the same code — registered, insured, and flown under FAA rules.
Mk-0 runs on the open-source stack trusted by commercial and research UAS worldwide: ArduPilot for flight control, SITL for software-in-the-loop simulation, Mission Planner and MAVProxy for ground control, and Gazebo for physics-rich scenarios. Open tools mean our results are reproducible — by partners, by reviewers, by anyone.