Platform-agnostic
Runs on the aircraft you have
Clear interfaces to flight controllers, sensors and radios. Modules can be swapped or upgraded without rebuilding the system.
About
The autonomy brain
for anything that flies.
Vasco Robotics is a spin-off from the University of Klagenfurt and the University of Bern. We build the software that lets aircraft perceive, decide and act on their own: an autonomy brain that runs on different platforms, flies without GPS, and can be inspected and verified.
01 / What we do
One brain.
Many aircraft.
Most of what flies autonomously today is bound to one airframe, one sensor set and one mission. We separate the intelligence from the platform. Our autonomy brain is a modular software stack, from perception, state estimation and navigation to semantic scene understanding, decision-making and mission execution, with clear interfaces to the aircraft underneath.
The same brain can fly a small quadcopter through a building, a fixed-wing aircraft along a border, or a group of interceptors towards a threat. Hardware enables. Software defines.
GPS-less
Flies where satellites do not reach
Vision, inertial, radar and UWB sensing fused into one robust state estimate. Indoors, under jamming, between buildings.
Verifiable
Behaviour you can inspect
Mission logic in behaviour trees that stay amenable to formal verification. Components are tested alone, then as a whole.
Secure
Encrypted end to end
Commands and mission data are protected between their intended endpoints, on the aircraft, in the air and on the ground.
02 / Why
Leipzig was
a warning.
In the night of 4 to 5 August 2026, a drone carrying explosives was found next to a cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Hours later, a second drone collided with a freighter aborting its landing. Two drones reached one of Europe’s largest cargo hubs before anyone could act.
The gap is not limited to airports. Power plants, ports, rail, data centres, hospitals and public events share it: small, low and slow objects go unseen until it is too late, and nobody can say what is coming, where, and when.
Our goal is to close that gap. Early detection, tracking and warning for people, critical infrastructure and civilian infrastructure providers. And when a threat is confirmed, guidance for interceptors and responders.
- Detect
See it early
Small, low and slow objects, day and night. Ground sensors and airborne scouts feed one live picture of the airspace.
- Track
Follow it
Detections become tracks. Trajectory and intent are estimated continuously, across sensors and across aircraft.
- Warn
Say what, where and when
Alerts reach people, operators and authorities with time to act, in the terms they need to decide, not raw sensor data.
- Guide
Act on it
Interceptors and responders are guided to the right point in space and time. The decision stays with people. The flying does not.
03 / Where we are going
From autonomy
to judgement.
Today the brain navigates without GPS, understands the scene and executes missions on its own. That is the foundation, and it has been tested in competition.
Where we are going is judgement: an aircraft that makes fast decisions under uncertainty, reasons about intent and consequences, and adapts to situations nobody scripted. These three abilities are what we are building the company around.
Fast decision-making
Decides in milliseconds, on board
No link to the ground and no round trip to a data centre. Perception, prediction and choice run on the aircraft, fast enough to matter when something crosses its path.
Reasoning
Understands the scene and the mission
The brain knows what it sees, what the mission asks for and what its actions mean. It weighs options against intent and consequences, and can explain why it acted.
Dealing with the unexpected
Keeps working when the plan breaks
Degraded sensors, jamming, new obstacles, a failed unit, a changed environment. Learned behaviour grounded in physics lets the aircraft adapt instead of stopping.
04 / Where we come from
Research first.
Then the field.
Vasco Robotics grows out of the Control of Networked Systems group at the University of Klagenfurt and the Software Engineering Group at the University of Bern. Our autonomy and navigation architecture was developed within the HERMES team, which won Stage 2 of SPRIN-D’s Fully Autonomous Flight 2.0 Challenge in August 2026: unknown environments, no GPS, two aircraft flying at the same time.
Three researchers, two universities, one conviction: progress in autonomous robotics depends as much on how software is built as on what a single robot can do.
- Founding
- 2027Planned incorporation. Until then, Vasco Robotics is a venture in formation.
- Roots
- ETH Zurich · NASA JPLWhere our team and advisors trained and researched. Research groups at the University of Klagenfurt and the University of Bern.
- Proven
- 2 × winnerSPRIN-D Fully Autonomous Flight 2.0 (2026) and NATO SPS SAPIENCE (2025).
- Focus
- Anything that fliesUAVs today. The same brain for other aircraft tomorrow.
05 / Track record
Competition wins
Winner · 2026
SPRIN-D Fully Autonomous Flight 2.0 Challenge (opens in a new tab)
Stage 2 final at Erding Air Base, August 2026: unknown environments, no GPS, two aircraft flying at the same time. The HERMES team of the University of Klagenfurt, led by our CEO, won with the autonomy and navigation architecture that is the technical foundation of Vasco.
Winner · 2025
NATO SPS SAPIENCE Multi-Agent Search and Rescue Competition (opens in a new tab)
Second SAPIENCE competition, Huntsville, USA, July 2025: cooperating UAVs explore and map a disaster area, locate people and deliver aid without satellite positioning. The University of Klagenfurt team led by our CEO won the competition.
06 / Contact