IXEAN Lawin
A fully autonomous tactical drone swarm system built for search and tracking — coordinating without a signal-vulnerable remote pilot, and without a limit on how far a single operator can see.
Remote piloting doesn't scale.
Search and tracking drones have become essential in modern military and defense operations, particularly in environments involving open terrain and artillery, such as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Despite their critical role, current state-of-the-art drones for search and tracking remain predominantly remote-controlled, which presents several key limitations.
- Range is restricted by the signal strength remote-control piloting requires.
- Each operator is typically limited to piloting a single drone, reducing the effectiveness of large-area searches.
- Electronic warfare countermeasures can disrupt control signals and expose the operator's location, hindering both operational scaling and long-range accuracy.
To address these challenges, we propose Lawin, a fully autonomous tactical drone swarm system designed for search and tracking.
Swarm intelligence, from launch to recovery.
Divide the search area
The operator selects a search area by GPS coordinates, which is subdivided into N sub-rectangles — one per drone in the swarm. Each Lawin autonomously navigates to its assigned sub-rectangle.
Deterministic zigzag search
Once in position, each Lawin ascends to a fixed altitude and begins its search at the nearest corner, following a zigzag pattern the operator can tune for thorough, slower coverage or a faster, lighter scan.
Swarm fitness intelligence
Each drone continuously calculates a "fitness value" from targets its onboard computer vision detects, sharing it with the rest of the swarm. On detection, it partially deviates from its search pattern to keep targets in view while continuing to explore.
Signal and return
Once a Lawin's fitness value crosses a threshold, it signals the nearest zero-fitness Lawin to a target-rich area. Positive-fitness drones relay GPS coordinates in real time, and after a set period the swarm returns autonomously to the operator.
A modular quadcopter, built for tactical range.
Each Ixean Lawin drone is a medium- to long-range modular quadcopter designed for optimal performance in tactical operations, from compact short-range frames to larger platforms built for extended search spaces.
- Frame options
- Short-range compact to long-range platform
- Short-range coverage
- 2 – 3 km search radius
- Long-range coverage
- 5 – 8 km search radius
- Onboard stack
- IXEAN Mata (AI) · Landas (GPS-denied flight) · Diwa (autonomy & comms)
Scalable, resilient, and ready for the field.
Autonomous swarm efficiency
Autonomous swarm intelligence covers larger areas, coordinates as one, and adapts dynamically to emerging threats — all while mitigating the risks of signal jamming and operator vulnerability.
Signal-resilient by design
No remote-control link to jam and no operator position to expose. Lawin redefines what is possible for search and tracking in defense operations at scale.
Maritime-ready
Given rising maritime tensions such as in the West Philippine Sea, Lawin can be equipped with an infrared flood-light camera and custom infrared-imagery AI for low-light maritime search and tracking.
Talk to us about a Lawin deployment for your mission profile.
Our team will help scope a deployment against your operational range, terrain, and mission requirements.