Are GPS and Similar Technologies Becoming Obsolete?
The future of unmanned aviation flies without satellite signals: In the “Fully Autonomous Flight 2.0” innovation competition organized by the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovations (SPRIND), the HERMES team from the University of Klagenfurt prevailed over its European competitors. Using a highly intelligent software system, the researchers demonstrated that complex navigation tasks in unfamiliar terrain can be solved precisely and efficiently even without GPS or human control.
Precision Under Extreme Conditions
At the finals held at Erding Air Base from August 24 to 27, 2026, the participating teams had to demonstrate their systems in two challenging scenarios. The “Last-Mile Delivery” mission required the identification of specific target points within a residential area, with organizers deliberately creating distractions through incorrect house numbers and varying landmarks. In the “Search and Rescue” task, the goal was to locate people in rugged terrain and track them for a period of ten minutes — even if they attempted to evade detection by fleeing or using camouflage.
The Klagenfurt drone impressed with its minimalist hardware approach. While some competing models weighed over 20 kilograms and were equipped with sophisticated sensor systems, HERMES relied on a compact inertial measurement unit, a rotating 360-degree LiDAR, and two cameras. The system’s intelligence lies in its software, which decides in fractions of a second whether obstacles such as clusters of trees are passable. Klagenfurt was also the only team to operate two drones simultaneously; these drones autonomously coordinated their tasks and independently avoided mid-air collisions.
In the “Last-Mile Delivery” mission, the drone had to identify house number 14 in a neighborhood consisting of six identical houses and land next to a blue bicycle (Photo: SPRIND / Felix Adler)
From the Research Lab to Practical Application
Behind this success is the Control of Networked Systems research group at the University of Klagenfurt. Over the course of two years, the team led by Luca Di Pierno, Yannick Morel, and Stephan Weiss developed a modular architecture that is now set to make the leap from academic research to industrial application. Despite adverse weather conditions in Erding, which required on-site improvisation, the system proved its robustness.
The SPRIND jury thus recognized a project that pushes the boundaries of current drone technology. The team is currently working on securing funding to bring the technology to production readiness. Potential applications for this form of fully autonomous navigation range from emergency medical care to complex search and rescue operations.
Relevance for the Drone Industry
The realization that autonomy is primarily a software challenge — rather than a matter of hardware upgrades — could drastically reduce the development costs of future systems. The ability to navigate in dynamic environments without GNSS support is also a prerequisite for the commercial use of drones in urban areas or in critical infrastructure projects, where GPS signals are often disrupted or unavailable.
For manufacturers and developers, this success underscores the importance of modular system architectures. The ability to coordinate swarm behavior and make real-time decisions in the presence of moving obstacles also demonstrates that the industry is ready to make the transition from remote-controlled drones to intelligent, autonomously operating systems. This opens the door to new business models in which software intelligence — rather than hardware performance — is the key differentiator in global competition.
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The team from the University of Klagenfurt (Photo: SPRIND / Felix Adler)
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