Qualcomm® Drone - Autonomous Development Drone using VOXL
Qualcomm-Powered Development Drones
Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are what let a small aircraft carry real compute — enough for perception, GPS-denied navigation and onboard AI without the weight that used to imply. ModalAI builds complete development drones around them, flight tested in San Diego and documented well enough that you can change how they fly rather than just operate them.
If you want the board rather than the aircraft, see Qualcomm autopilots.
Starling 2 Max
Starling 2 Max is our GPS-denied development drone, built around VOXL 2 and the Qualcomm QRB5165. It flies on computer-vision dead reckoning rather than satellites, carries 500 g of payload, and runs PX4 out of the box.
It is the same VOXL 2 and the same PX4 build you would integrate into your own airframe, so parameters, tuning and code carry across when you move off the reference platform.
Stinger Vision FPV
Stinger Vision FPV is a ready-to-fly FPV aircraft on VOXL 2 Mini, on the Blue UAS Cleared List and NDAA compliant. Digital encrypted video with an 11 km link, and onboard autonomy that cuts the training burden for an operator who is not a practised FPV pilot.
What You Get on Either
- PX4 flight control, obstacle avoidance and GPS-denied navigation through visual inertial odometry
- ROS and MAVROS autonomous navigation, and MAVSDK onboard for your own applications
- Beyond visual line of sight over 4G/LTE or 5G — see connected drones
- SLAM, obstacle avoidance and object recognition through the VOXL SDK, with full documentation at docs.modalai.com
Support and Documentation
These drones are documented and supported by the engineers who developed Snapdragon Flight and Qualcomm Flight Pro at Qualcomm before founding ModalAI. Questions reach them directly on the developer forum.
ModalAI also partnered with Qualcomm on the Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform. Browse all development drones, or the development kits if you would rather start from boards.
Earlier aircraft from this line — VOXL m500 and the Qualcomm Flight RB5 reference drone — have reached end of life. See the end-of-life notice.