Talos Hub: Autonomous Flight and Pilot Assistance for Fixed-Wing Models

Hello everyone,

I’m a model aviation and flying enthusiast, and for some time I’ve been studying, designing and developing a software system for autonomous flight and pilot assistance. It is intended to coordinate missions, support the pilot and manage different operating conditions. I’ve named it “Talos Hub”, after the giant bronze automaton that guarded Crete, often considered one of the earliest examples of a “robot” in ancient literature.

I’m currently implementing and testing the system’s various flight-assistance functions using a fixed-wing model aircraft—a type of aircraft I have been passionate about for over thirty years. My intention is to extend the work to multirotors later on, adapting the logic to the characteristics of each platform.

I recently began the first simulator tests, putting TALOS through progressively more complex scenarios: normal missions, conflicting requests, stale data, unstable approaches and situations requiring a manoeuvre to be interrupted or a go-around initiated.

The work focuses primarily on coordinating the system’s functions:

• managing mission phases and authorisations;

• providing flight assistance and handling transitions between pilot intervention and autonomous operation;

• monitoring data and operating conditions;

• identifying situations that require a recovery manoeuvre;

• confirming recovery before allowing another attempt;

• logging events to analyse and improve the system’s behaviour.

As mentioned, the project also covers RC model aviation. TALOS incorporates functions and controls dedicated to radio-controlled flight, with the aim of bringing manual piloting, assistance and autonomy together within the same operating experience. Compatibility with individual configurations is being checked throughout development.

To make the system convenient and practical to use at the flying field and outdoors in general, I have already implemented a dedicated application for configuration, control and system updates. It connects over Wi-Fi, allowing it to be used outdoors without an additional hardware interface, and brings these operations together in an accessible interface.

In the simulation tests completed so far, I have verified, among other things, go-arounds requested following low airspeed or attitude instability, recovery confirmation, a new approach and a completed landing. TALOS coordinates supervisory decisions, while the onboard flight controller handles low-level flight control. The project is still at the simulator-testing stage: these initial results provide a foundation for further work, rather than validation on a real aircraft.

We would welcome a discussion with developers, researchers, pilots and aerial robotics enthusiasts: which scenarios do you consider most useful for testing a system like this? What behaviours and results would you like to see documented?

We’re sharing this initial introduction to gather ideas, observations and constructive criticism that can help us develop TALOS further.

TALOS HUB TEAM