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HELLBAT - Acoustic Drone Detection

Built at National Security Hackathon (by Army xTech) · May 2, 2026 · San Francisco, CA

HELLBAT - Acoustic Drone Detection — Demo video

HELLBAT — Acoustic Drone Detection at the Edge Modern counter-UAS depends on RF and radar — both fail against the threats that matter most. Acoustic is the missing modality. Two MEMS mics + ESP32-S3 sensor node feed a Jetson running bio-inspired modulation features and a probabilistic classifier; GCC-PHAT on stereo audio gives bearing. <200ms latency, no GPS, no RF emissions. Sensor node ~$20. Path to <$50/node at scale via custom SoC. A cheap node is a node you can lose, and a mesh of them triangulates not just drones, but small-arms fire and mortar teams.

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