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Fawcett Innovations LLC  ·  The FrogNet Living Network
PREPARED FOR FARSIGHT VISION × AEROS
PRODUCTION SYSTEM · TRL 6–7 · FIELD-PROVEN
How to Think Like a Frog

A fleet that thinks
for itself.

FrogNet is a sovereign, self-forming mesh with a real-time network shared memory — one live picture that supports simultaneous AI control of every connected device — no cloud, no base station, and a link that holds even when it's constrained or contested.

John W. Fawcett, CEO  ·  Daniel Tone, VP Engineering
Networked autonomy for unmanned ground systems
Anatomy of a FrogNet

A complete, sovereign network — mobile, self-forming, self-healing.

Each node is a whole network on its own, the size of a deck of cards. Nodes discover each other and mesh into a pond you own end to end — forming and healing themselves with no operator, even on the move — and its shared memory is a live database every node reads and writes.

INTERNET · OTHER PONDS optional · via broker / WireGuard uplink THE POND — ONE SOVEREIGN NETWORK NODE Linux · Pi-class NODE Linux · Pi-class NODE Linux · Pi-class read + write TRANSIENT DATABASE the real-time network memory one address, mesh-wide · always current floats to the highest node — never a stale address SENSOR PLATFORM ESP32 · LoRa · Meshtastic hangs off a node — writes to memory AI PLATFORM local inference, on-node reads memory — decides — acts
The node — a network in a box
DNS, DHCP, web, database and AI on standard Pi-class Linux. Runs fully standalone with zero connectivity.
The database is network memory
Every node reads and writes one real-time store. It floats between hosts but keeps a single address mesh-wide and always holds the current truth — no history, no stale copies.
Sensors & AI hang off nodes
ESP32 and LoRa sensors attach to individual nodes, and an AI on the mesh reads the shared memory and acts on it.
Sovereign — uplink optional
A broker links ponds over WireGuard only when the internet is there. Offline is the baseline; nothing in the chain belongs to anyone else.
Why autonomy needs a different network

A machine that depends on a link to base is dead the moment the link is jammed.

TETHERED — DEPENDENT ON SOMEONE ELSE'S CHAIN
C2 RELAY LINK VEHICLE jammed cloud / base

Jam one link and the vehicle goes blind, deaf, and dumb. Every layer it depends on is someone else's.

SOVEREIGN — THE FLEET IS THE NETWORK
EVERY VEHICLE A NODE · PEER TO PEER

Each vehicle is a complete node. They mesh directly, share state, and keep coordinating with no base, no cloud, no link to cut.

Offline-first
Assumes no link; keeps operating when the link is gone.
Any radio is a pipe
Rides whatever the platform carries — HaLow, LoRa, SATCOM.
Proximity = perimeter
Off the internet — nothing to attack from across the world.
Memory, not messages
Vehicles share state, not packets — no C2 session to spoof.
The autonomy engine
NETWORK-HOSTED AI · SHARED WORLD STATE

The network sees every vehicle — and steers them all.

UGV sensors · actuators UGV sensors · actuators UGV sensors · actuators publish · read back SHARED REAL-TIME WORLD STATE every vehicle's state, in one place · mesh-wide reads all · writes control NETWORK-HOSTED AI sees & steers every vehicle · floats like the data

Every vehicle publishes what it senses and reads back what to do. A network-hosted AI sees the whole fleet's state in one place — and writes control to any vehicle in real time, with no message-passing an adversary can jam, spoof, or sever.

THE LOOP THAT DRIVES AUTONOMY
sensor network AI actuator

The sense-act loop closes through the shared state — and it keeps running through the loss of any vehicle, any link, or the internet entirely.

PROVEN · APRIL 17, 2026

A closed sensor → AI → actuator loop, through a database 2,400 miles away, over a 4,800-baud link at 20% loss — in under 2 seconds.

If it closes transatlantic over jammed dial-up, it closes across a field of vehicles.

93.8%bandwidth cut
44×throughput @ 4,800 baud
<2sRTT @ 20% loss
10live nodes, 3 cities
Survivability under jamming

Coordination that does not stop.

Conventional links are binary — working, or dropped. FrogNet's video steps down by resolution, then frame rate — then sheds to audio, text and canned messages, climbing back as the link recovers.

VIDEO — RESOLUTION ↓ THEN FRAME RATE ↓
720p
30 · 15 · 7 fps
480p
30 · 15 · 7 fps
320p
30 · 15 · 7 fps
AUDIO
two-way voice
TEXT
real-time typed
CANNED
pre-set: hold · move · contact

It never cliffs — it drops a rung and keeps the link alive. Only total jamming — zero bytes through — ends it.

The swarm forms itself

Vehicles discover each other and mesh with no configuration, merge with other units on contact, and heal when one is lost. There is no central node for an adversary to take out.

Proven mobile & contested

A 900 MHz HaLow node held the mesh continuously through dense urban driving — across multipath, building occlusions, and the metal of the vehicle itself. The exact RF nightmare of a moving ground vehicle.

One box, civil to contested

The same architecture runs a private family network and a first-responder mesh — genuinely dual-use, civil through defense.

Fielded over WiFi, LoRa & WireGuard at emergency operations centers — not on amateur radio bands, by deliberate design.
Already proven — independently

Dan has already proven the hard parts.

An autonomous, re-taskable fleet has to sense and act, stay meshed on the move, pull in any sensor, join from anywhere, and be reprogrammed in the field. Daniel Tone has demonstrated each on FrogNet, on his own nodes in New York — an independent reproduction of the whole system, the latest completed today.

Sense → decide → act
APRIL 17, 2026

Dan drove a physical actuator from a web UI — every step routed through a database 2,400 miles away, over a 4,800-baud link at 20% loss, in under 2 seconds. The closed control loop of an autonomous vehicle, proven over a worst-case link.

A mesh that moves
MOBILE · 900 MHz HALOW

Dan ran a trunk-mounted HaLow node through dense urban driving in Queens — no dropped links across multipath, building occlusion, and the vehicle's own metal. A moving platform that never loses the swarm.

Sensors over any radio
MESHTASTIC · LORA

Dan bridged MeshTastic and LoRa sensor data straight into the shared memory, end to end — RF-delivered readings the whole mesh sees at once. Field sensors over the radios a unit actually carries.

Join from anywhere
LAST WEEK · STARLINK

Dan stood up a node on nothing but a Starlink uplink — it joined the mesh as a full member in minutes, SSH-reachable and writing to the shared database. Drop a unit anywhere with a sat link and it's on the network.

Re-task on the fly
TODAY · OTA FIRMWARE

Dan pushed a remote firmware update to the ESP32 boards — repurpose any sensor or actuator across the fleet with no physical access. Re-mission the hardware from afar — a soil sensor becomes a perimeter tripwire.

The building blocks of an autonomous, re-taskable fleet — already working, independently. Next is the fleet: a pilot on a handful of units, then the 500.

And he took it from concept to execution in a few days — the leverage is in the ideas, not the labor. Shift the paradigm, stay adaptable, and a few people do what used to take an army.

Fawcett Innovations LLC  · with AEROS Systems
unixpro@ufie.org  ·  (206) 335-9639