Musterby Audax
Counts the mob at first light. Walks it through the gate, gently.
Status: simulation complete, first aircraft in build, field trials next.
The dawn census
Counted before the day starts.
The aircraft fly every paddock once at first light, high enough that the mob keeps grazing. You get a head count per paddock. Any animal lying down is flagged with its location and a picture, so it is checked first. Open country for now: the aircraft cannot see under canopy.
The push
Through the gate at a walk.
The swarm finds the mob and takes station behind it. One aircraft brings in the stragglers while the others walk the mob along the drive line and through the gate. If the mob breaks into a trot they climb and back off, and go again only once it settles.
- 0of 0 through the gate
- 3aircraft
Welfare is the test
The mob sets the pace.
Welfare limits are set before every flight and enforced on the aircraft themselves, not left to anyone's judgement in the moment. A mob that hurries is a mob being pushed too hard, so the pressure comes off.
- Never closer than 10 m to any animal.
- Counting is flown high enough that the mob keeps grazing.
- The aircraft back off the moment the mob breaks into a trot.
Always in command
A person can always call it home.
One person is in command of the whole swarm. They can pause it or call it home at any moment, and every aircraft obeys before it finishes what it was doing.
- If the aircraft lose contact with each other, they hold, then fly home.
- If the wind is unsafe, they do not launch.
- Pushingthe swarm right now, simulated
The aircraft
Small aircraft. Careful software.
Each aircraft carries its own edge AI on NVIDIA hardware, trained to recognise cattle from the air, so it keeps working when the ground link is poor. A small swarm shares what it sees and divides the work between aircraft. The airframes are ordinary; the care is in the software.
- 3aircraft in the first swarm
- 1person in command
Proven before it flies
Thousands of missions before the first flight.
Every change to the flight software is flown through thousands of simulated missions before it goes near an aircraft. Then it is tested on the bench, then in the field, on cattle properties in northern Australia.
- Simulation
- Complete
- First aircraft
- In build
- Field trials
- Next
Works with Control Centre
One map of the farm.
Control Centre holds the map: paddocks, mobs and the headcount ledger. Muster flies that map and writes back what it saw, so a dawn census checks the books. One sign-in for both.
Looking for cattle properties in northern Australia for the first trials.