Skip to main content
Contact Us
EDGE AI · UAV & DRONES

What Is a Drone Companion Computer?

A drone companion computer is a small AI computer that runs alongside the flight controller on a UAV. The flight controller flies the aircraft; the companion computer does the thinking — running computer vision and AI to give the drone autonomy such as obstacle avoidance, navigation, and object detection. NVIDIA Jetson is the common choice because it delivers high AI performance at a weight light enough to fly.

01

The Short Answer

A companion computer is the AI brain on a drone. It sits next to the flight controller and runs the heavy software the controller cannot: computer vision, path planning, object detection. The flight controller keeps the aircraft stable and executes commands; the companion computer decides what those commands should be, based on what its cameras and sensors see.

02

Why Drones Need One

A flight controller runs on a microcontroller built for real-time stabilization, not for neural networks. To make a drone autonomous — to have it avoid obstacles, follow a target, or map a site — you need a full computer running AI, and that is the companion computer. It connects to the flight controller over a serial UART or CAN link, usually with the MAVLink protocol, sending it waypoints and velocity commands while reading telemetry back.

  • //
    Vision Object detection, tracking, and obstacle avoidance from onboard cameras.
  • //
    Navigation Path planning and position estimation, often fused with GNSS.
  • //
    Links to the flight controller Commands and telemetry over CAN or UART via MAVLink.
03

On NVIDIA Jetson

NVIDIA Jetson Orin is the usual companion computer because it offers a high ratio of AI performance to weight and power, which is what a drone needs. We build drone companion computers on Jetson and integrate them with the flight controller. See our guide to NVIDIA Jetson for drones for the full picture.