Can inertial navigation make ground-robot swarms real? Two startups are equipping small wheeled robots with a GPS-free nav package. Science & Technology Editor October 29, 2026 01:30 PM ET Two startups, working together for just under a week, may have found a way around the biggest obstacle to deploying swarms of ground robots: the need for GPS-free navigation in a small package. Swarmbotics AI, which makes 100-pound autonomous robots, is teaming up with TERN, whose navigation software doesn't need GPS, the companies announced Wednesday. The Army has been seeking alternatives to the spoofable, jammable satellite-based system for years. "The current environment has taught us that GPS is the first thing that gets canned on the battle space," William Shuart, a program manager for the Army's Pathfinder3D program, told Army magazine in January. So the service is fielding jam-resistant GPS cards for munitions and is also working on ALTNAV, which uses a different satellite constellation. But its plans for a robot-forward ground force require a position-navigation-timing system that can get by without a satellite signal at all. The self-driving car industry, with its reliance on GPS and unstealthy LiDAR, hasn't been much help. Enter TERN, whose PNT system needs no signals from space, and Swarmbotics AI, an Arizona robotics company whose four-wheeled FireAnts fit roughly into a two-foot cube. "Our teams integrated the TERN system on site here in Phoenix into the FireAnt in less than a week, which I think is really impressive. So we went from never having really spoken to these guys on a technical level at least to having the system fielded in a week," said Drew Watson, co-founder and CTO of Swarmbotics AI. TERN's Independently Derived Positioning System, or IDPS, combines input from the vehicle's own sensors, including "wheel speed, steering angle, and 3D motion data," with onboard map data. "We're using the motion of that vehicle all the way down to something as as compact as a FireAnt, and through that successive motion, we're able to output latitude and longitude at the same rate that GPS could, or twice a second," said Shaun Moore, co-founder and CEO of TERN. Next up: sharing that information, which Watson described as "a building block to something else." The team wants to move toward coordinated swarm maneuvering, with teams of robots sharing data with one another in a mesh network. If each member of the swarm understands where it is and where its teammates are, that data can add value to other sensor data, such as camera or radar feeds about threats. "The way that's working is that each one of these FireAnts is giving a line of bearing to an enemy tank, for instance. Those are triangulated into a position of that enemy tank via multiple firings. The quality of that identification, the position of that enemy tank, is based on the position of the firings...It improves the automatic target recognition," said Watson. Both companies have already drawn Army attention. TERN received a $11.26 million contract in September, and both have participated in the service's Operation Jailbreak tech demonstrations.

U.S. Army selects Swarmbotics AI for autonomous robot swarms. * The U.S. Army selected Swarmbotics AI to develop swarming, attritable small unmanned ground vehicles for Transformation in Contact with the 1st Cavalry Division following xTech Overwatch evaluations. * The program aims to field large numbers of autonomous ground robots to support maneuver units and accelerate operational integration of ground autonomy. The United States Army has selected Swarmbotics AI to develop swarming, attritable small unmanned ground vehicles as part of its Transformation in Contact effort with the 1st Cavalry Division, the company announced on Feb. 5. The award follows Swarmbotics AI's performance at last year's xTech Overwatch competition, where Army soldiers evaluated autonomous systems intended for rapid integration into operational units. The effort is focused on advancing the Army's ability to deploy large numbers of low-cost robotic platforms to support maneuver formations in contested environments. According to the company, the program centers on swarming, heterogeneous small unmanned ground vehicles designed to operate cooperatively and accept attrition during combat operations. Swarmbotics AI said the systems are intended to create tactical dilemmas for adversaries while reducing reliance on more expensive, crewed platforms. "Mass is our objective, by employing swarms of heterogeneous small sUGVs we create multiple dilemmas for our adversaries at fractions of the cost of exquisite platforms," said Stephen Houghton, chief executive officer of Swarmbotics AI, in a company statement. During xTech Overwatch evaluations, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division assessed multiple contractors' autonomous capabilities across ground vehicles, airborne systems, payload integration, and mission planning tools. The assessments were conducted in coordination with Army stakeholders to determine which technologies were suitable for rapid transition into Transformation in Contact formations. Lt. Col. Nick Rinaldi, competition lead at the Army Applications Laboratory, said the structure of xTech Overwatch accelerated decision-making by placing operational units directly in the evaluation process. "Having the entire material kill chain as evaluators invested in the outcome was critical to the speed of decisions on which technologies were most suited to move into a TiC formation," Rinaldi said. He added that the approach reflects how the Army intends to work with industry going forward, emphasizing rapid experimentation, direct soldier feedback, and quicker transition from demonstration to field use. According to Rinaldi, engaging companies on real operational problems and evaluating systems in realistic contexts allows the Army to make procurement and integration decisions faster. Swarmbotics AI's technical leadership said the program demonstrated the operational value of robotic mass at the small-unit level. Drew Watson, the company's chief technology officer, said xTech Overwatch showed what could be achieved with limited numbers of robots and pointed to larger-scale deployments planned with the 1st Cavalry Division. "The key takeaway is that robot swarms are here to stay," Watson said. He added that upcoming work with the division in 2026 will focus on establishing baseline concepts for deploying hundreds of robots during maneuver and breaching operations. The Army's Transformation in Contact initiative is designed to push new capabilities directly into operational units for experimentation and refinement, rather than relying solely on long-term development programs. Attritable unmanned ground systems are viewed as a way to extend reconnaissance, security, and support functions while reducing risk to soldiers. Readers who wish to follow its weekly coverage can subscribe to the Weekly Defense Roundup. If you wish to report a grammatical or factual error in this article, please let Defence Blog know by using the online form.