EMBODIMENT SYSTEMS
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FIELD NOTE02 JUN 20265 min read

What happens when the link goes dark

Most autonomy demos assume a datalink. The interesting question is what the swarm does in the minutes after it loses one.

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A demo with a good link is a demo of teleoperation with extra steps. The behaviour worth showing is what happens after the link is gone: whether the mission continues, degrades, or stops.

Intent is held locally

Each agent holds the mission intent locally and continues through jamming, GPS denial or a lost link. Nothing is waiting on a server to re-issue an instruction, because no instruction was issued in the first place — an objective was.

Handoff on loss

Lose an agent, keep the mission. Tasking redistributes to the surviving agents that can still carry it, in the order the objective demands.

Programme detail, financials and roadmap sit in the data room, not on the open web.

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Five aircraft under a single operator, tasked by intent rather than waypoint, holding formation through a simulated link loss.

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