Notus Autonomous Systems

What do they actually do

Notus Autonomous Systems is an early-stage YC company building PALLAS, a command system that lets one operator give mission-level goals to a mixed fleet of drones and ground robots. The software translates goals like “scout this area” or “hold a perimeter” into coordinated actions across many vehicles, handling low-level control and deconfliction so humans focus on strategy, not piloting (YC profile, company site).

Public materials say the system is meant to work in contested environments (GPS spoofing, jamming) and that the design reflects lessons from operations in Ukraine, but there are no public customer contracts, technical specs, or deployment docs available today; external writeups mostly repeat founder claims without independent verification (YC profile, company site, coverage example, blog recap). Near-term, the team aims to finish and ship PALLAS, standardize control across vendors, and scale from small prototypes toward larger mixed-fleet deployments (YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Front-line tactical commanders (platoon/company level): They need to direct many drones/robots without assigning a human to each vehicle; current workflows force leaders to micromanage or accept slow decision cycles (YC profile).
• Recon/ISR teams and analysts: They struggle to fuse mixed air/ground sensor feeds and act quickly, especially when comms are degraded or GPS is spoofed (YC profile).
• Special operations and rapid-reaction units: They need fast-to-field, combat-hardened systems that automate risky tasks; available tools often break under EW or require heavy operator load (YC profile).
• Military procurement and program managers: They must integrate different vendors and scale trials into fielded fleets without ballooning operator headcount; interoperability and standards are persistent hurdles (company site).
• Defense contractors and vehicle integrators: They need a common control stack so heterogeneous platforms can be packaged together; bespoke autonomy per vehicle is slow and costly (YC profile).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Place high-touch pilots with front-line and special-operations users via founder contacts; embed engineers, iterate from field feedback, and use NDAs to tolerate prototype rough edges (YC profile).
• First 50: Standardize those pilots into short-term trials for ISR units and procurement offices while signing integration partnerships so PALLAS ships as a drop-in command layer with partner platforms.
• First 100: List on procurement frameworks and sell via primes/resellers as turnkey packages (software + integration + training + field support), supported by pilot performance data and documented interoperability.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Budgets touching PALLAS span defense command-and-control (about $32–39B today and growing) plus unmanned/drone software and UGV segments, yielding an umbrella TAM in the low tens of billions globally (MarketsandMarkets, Grand View Research, Grand View Research—drone software, Mordor—UGV).

Bottom-up calculation:

A practical near-term SAM for tactical autonomy and mixed-fleet command is mid–single-digit billions by combining tactical UAV spend (~$4–5B), current military UGV (~$2B), and the defense slice of drone software, recognizing PALLAS sells the software/integration layer, not full platforms (IMARC—tactical UAV, Mordor—UGV, Grand View—drone software).

Assumptions:

• Counts only the software/integration share of programs, not full vehicle hardware budgets.
• Focuses on tactical/edge use cases over strategic C2; excludes commercial-only drone spending.
• Assumes multi-country access via partners; procurement and certifications limit pace of capture.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Anduril (Lattice): Lattice is a battle-management/C2 platform that fuses sensors and automates tasking across domains, orchestrating Anduril and third-party systems; overlaps on mixed-fleet mission control and sensor fusion (link).
• Shield AI (Hivemind): Hivemind is an autonomy stack and commander toolkit designed for GPS- and comms-denied ops across air and ground; competes on single-operator control of autonomous teams and contested-environment autonomy (overview).
• Palantir (Defense/Mission Command): Provides large-scale ISR fusion and mission-management software (e.g., Maven Smart System) to accelerate sensor-to-decision workflows; competes where a commander-level integration layer is needed (Palantir, reporting).
• Skydio: Builds autonomous drones plus cloud/fleet management (Remote Ops, Skydio Cloud) enabling reduced operator workload and multi-vehicle ops; more commercial-first but active with national security buyers (autonomy, cloud).
• Auterion (Nemyx): Offers an open drone OS and Nemyx for swarm/strike orchestration; positions as a cross-platform mission OS with large-scale skynode deployments and integrator adoption (Nemyx, skynode).