Working Student
Embedded AI & Drones (m/f/d)

01/ WHY THIS MATTERS

FPV drones are killing soldiers every day. The world watches and learns.

Ukraine, 2024-2025: Over 42% of all verified vehicle losses caused by FPV kamikaze drones. Sources state that over 800.000 Military Targets were eliminated by UAVs Cost: €300-700. Components: commercially available worldwide. What happens in Ukraine today becomes the standard weapon of terrorist groups, non-state actors, and hybrid adversaries tomorrow. This is not theoretical. This is inevitable. And when it happens, it will be too late.

Right now, in Ukraine, a €400 FPV drone can destroy a €5 million tank!

/02 THE PROBLEM 

Imagine this:
A German infantry squad is defending a position. An enemy FPV drone (cost: €500) is flying toward them at 100 km/h, carrying a RPG Warhead.

Current defense options:

• Shoot with rifles: low hit rate, reveals position

• Call in air defense: €100k+ per shot, not available for infantry

• Electronic jamming: Modern drones use fibre optic connections or fly autonomously

• Fixed-wing Interceptor: Needs a stationary launch-rail system, requires high minimum speed and has limited maneuverability

  
  Result: Soldiers have no effective defense.

/03 THE HERAKLES SOLUTION (Visualized):

Now imagine this:
The same squad has 4 Herakles launchers mounted on sandbags.

1. Enemy FPV drone enters airspace (detected visually and acoustically by our AI)
2. Soldier presses launch button on tube
3. Herakles interceptor launches, acquires target via onboard camera
4. AI tracks the enemy drone in real-time
5. Autonomous guidance calculates intercept trajectory
6. Interceptor rams enemy drone at 100+ km/h closing speed
7. Both drones destroyed mid-air. Threat neutralized.

Total time: 8-15 seconds. No radio link. No heavy equipment. Cost: less than €2,000.

WHY IT WORKS:

• Autonomous: No pilot, no radio link → immune to jamming

• Fast: Sub-50ms latency from detection to motor control

• Portable: Soldier-carried launchers, no trucks or generators

• Economic: 3:1 cost ratio (€2k vs €500) is sustainable in mass deployment

/04 YOUR MISSION - What you will build

You'll work on the actual prototype – not on PowerPoints.

As a working student, you're part of the engineering team from day one, working on real hardware and real software.

·       Visual Tracking Pipeline: YOLO-based object detection on edge hardware with sub-20ms inference. You'll optimize models for real-time performance on Nvidia Jetson and Hailo-8.

·       Flight Control & Integration: PX4 Autopilot configuration, MAVLink communication, sensor integration. You make the hardware fly.

·       Embedded Systems: Development on Linux-based edge devices, camera pipelines, hardware-software interfaces. Everything must work under real-world conditions.

·       Prototyping & Testing: Drone building, soldering, testing, iterating. From the workbench to the test flight. You build things that fly.

·       Sim2Real: SITL/HITL testing and validation. What works in simulation must survive reality.

/05 WHO YOU ARE

You're studying Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, or similar and have experience in at least 2 of these areas:

Must-Haves (at least 2 of 4):

1. Drones / FPV

You've built or flown drones yourself. You know what a flight controller does, understand the difference between Betaflight and PX4, and have ideally designed or modified your own frames.

2. Embedded Systems / Linux

You've worked with Jetson, Raspberry Pi, STM32, or similar hardware. You're at home on a Linux system and can write performant code in C++ or Python.

3. Computer Vision / ML

You have experience with object detection (YOLO, OpenCV) or have trained and deployed ML models on edge hardware. Bonus: TensorRT, ONNX, model quantization.

4. Systems Engineering

You've independently completed complex technical projects – whether university projects, hackathons, competitions, or side projects. You think in systems, not in isolated functions.

Mindset > Resume. We're looking for people who build things – not just read about them. Show us your GitHub, your project, your drone.

/06 WHAT WE OFFER

·       Real ownership: No busywork, no slide decks. You build the actual product.

·       Hardware access: Our own workshop with drones, Jetson boards, cameras, soldering station, 3D printer – everything you need.

·       Flexibility: 15–20h/week, adapted to your study schedule and exam periods.

·       Founding team proximity: Work directly with the founders. No middle management, no bureaucracy.

·       Growth path: Strong performance opens the door to joining the founding team after graduation, including equity participation.

·       Compensation: Competitive working student salary.

·       Location: Munich. On-site in our workshop.

The Upside: You're Building Something That Matters

Market size: €6.64B → €20.31B by 2030
Germany alone: €12B investment by 2030
First-mover advantage in anti-FPV segment

But more than money:

Soldiers are killed by FPV drones every day.
In 2 years, this will spread to terrorist groups worldwide.
If Herakles works, we save lives. That's not marketing talk. That's the mission.

/07 THE PROCESS

Fast, transparent, respectful

1. 01 | The Mission-Fit Question (8 min) - Fill out the form

2. 02 | The Alignment Call (20 min) - Informal video call with founders

/08 APPLICATION FORM (TALLY)