Lantronix announced Spotter in a press release on 13 October 2026. The specifications below are Lantronix’s own claims and have not been independently tested.
Lantronix, a US company that makes computing and networking hardware, has introduced Spotter, a small board that gives drones and robots the onboard computing they need to run autonomy software [1].
Lantronix is showing Spotter this week at AUSA 2026 in Washington, D.C. It says Spotter will be available in the fourth quarter of 2026 [1].
What Lantronix says it does
Spotter puts AI, camera vision, flight sensors and vehicle control on one board [1]. Lantronix says:
- It runs on a Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 chip.
- It delivers “up to 12.5 TOPS of AI performance at single digit watts on a 42 x 120 mm board” [1]. TOPS (trillions of operations per second) is a rough measure of how much AI work a chip can do.
- It works with common open drone software: PX4, ArduPilot, Betaflight and MAVLink.
- It can be fitted to existing aerial, ground and maritime vehicles, or used in new designs.
- Customers keep control of their own autonomy and mission software.
The problem Lantronix says it is solving
Lantronix says builders of small drones and robots face two poor choices: cheap boards that “can’t run meaningful AI”, or GPU platforms whose cost, power and size make little sense for small vehicles that may be lost in use [1].
“Drone and robotics companies shouldn’t have to choose between a board that can’t think and a platform they can’t afford to put on every vehicle,” said Saleel Awsare, president and CEO of Lantronix [1].
“With Spotter, Lantronix moves from supplying compute to delivering the platform autonomy is built on,” he added [1].
What this means
- More AI on smaller vehicles. If the figures hold up, small drones and robots could run more AI on board without a costly GPU.
- Aimed at defence buyers too. Lantronix is launching it at AUSA 2026 and says its computing is already “flying today in Blue UAS-approved drones” [1].
- Not shipping yet. It is due in Q4 2026. No price has been given.
Sources
- Lantronix, “Lantronix Introduces Spotter to Close the Compute Gap Holding Back Drone and Robot Autonomy”, GlobeNewswire, 13 October 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/13/3379546/0/en/lantronix-introduces-spotter-to-close-the-compute-gap-holding-back-drone-and-robot-autonomy.html
