Danish wildfire spin-out Robotto says its GPS-free autonomy guides 5,000 Ukrainian strike drones
Camera-only autonomy built to map wildfires now guides Ukrainian strike drones through Russian GPS jamming, and the 12-person Danish firm behind it is headed into NATO's accelerator pipeline.
Camera-only autonomy built to map wildfires now guides Ukrainian strike drones through Russian GPS jamming, and the 12-person Danish firm behind it is headed into NATO's accelerator pipeline.
Danish software firm Robotto says its vision-based autonomy now rides on some 5,000 quadcopter and fixed-wing strike drones in Ukraine, steering them to targets with no GPS and no operator uplink, according to a United24 Media profile published Tuesday. The outlet, which is Ukrainian state-funded, disclosed that deployment and performance figures come from Robotto itself. Co-founder Kenneth Geipel put the software's hit rate at 80 to 100 percent in GNSS-denied conditions, a figure the company repeats in its NATO DIANA materials and that no independent outlet has confirmed.
The system flies on a single camera feed. Onboard models identify objects and compute their position in three dimensions, so the aircraft needs no satellite fix and carries no LiDAR to jam or spoof. Navigation, detection and calculation sit in separate modules; moving the stack from a quadcopter to a fixed-wing airframe means swapping one component, per United24. The person who decides to engage stays in the loop.
The core predates the war. Robotics students at Aalborg University built it in 2018 to map wildfires, teaching drones to orient by neural network and camera because a burning forest offers no stable link to an operator. The Danish Emergency Management Agency ran the early tests, the university wrote in May. In February 2022 a veteran Geipel had served beside in Afghanistan asked over LinkedIn whether any of it could help Ukraine.
Money has followed the front-line work. Robotto opened a Kyiv subsidiary, Robotto UA, in March with backing from Danish defense fund Final Frontier and EIFO, Denmark's export credit agency, The Defender reported. NATO's DIANA accelerator picked the firm for its 2026 cohort, one of 150 companies drawn from 3,680 submissions, with contractual funding and a slot at Poland's Fort Krakow site.
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Subscribe Free →The gap Robotto fills is the market Europe is now paying for. Russian jamming has made satellite navigation unreliable along much of the front, and European defense, security and resilience startups raised a record $8.7 billion in 2025, according to a Dealroom and NATO Innovation Fund report. Robotto counted 12 employees as of May, per Aalborg University. The DIANA year, which runs through 2026, will show whether combat traction that small converts into alliance contracts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Robotto's software actually do?
Robotto builds no drones. It sells autonomy software delivered as edge nodes that let a UAV navigate and complete a strike without GPS or an operator uplink, per United24 Media. The Defender notes the software guides the drone to its target once the operator has acquired it.
How does a drone navigate without GPS?
The system uses a single camera feed and onboard AI to identify objects and calculate positions in three dimensions, per United24 Media. It avoids satellite fixes and heavy sensors such as LiDAR, which can be jammed or spoofed.
Are the 5,000-drone and hit-rate figures verified?
No. United24 Media disclosed that deployment and performance figures were provided by Robotto. The 80 to 100 percent hit-rate claim also appears in the company's own NATO DIANA statements, but no independent outlet has confirmed it.
Where did the technology come from?
It began as a 2018 student project at Aalborg University to map wildfires with drones that orient by neural network and camera, tested with the Danish Emergency Management Agency, according to the university.
What is Robotto UA?
A Ukrainian subsidiary Robotto opened in March 2026, backed by Danish defense fund Final Frontier and EIFO, Denmark's export credit agency, per The Defender and company statements. It anchors development beside the units that use the software in combat.
What does NATO DIANA selection mean for Robotto?
DIANA, NATO's defense innovation accelerator, chose Robotto for its 2026 cohort of 150 companies from 3,680 submissions, per Robotto and TechSavvy. The firm gets contractual funding and joins the Fort Krakow accelerator site in Poland.
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Marcus Schuler
Marcus Schuler edits BattlePolicy, a daily defense-technology brief connecting the companies and capabilities behind modern war to the contest among Europe, the US, Russia, and China.