By Milind
/
May 27, 2025
We're proud to announce the development of the Wint Mahymah flight controller - A powerful, feature packed and highly versatile solution designed for next-generation multi-domain UAVs, offering exceptional performance across diverse mission environments. This sophisticated flight controller is being entirely designed and manufactured in India, embodying our philosophy of "Making in India, Making for the World."
This blog is the first in a series which logs the development journey of the flight controller, and aims to provide an introduction to the features, scope, timeline and market requirement for such a controller.
The Mahymah controller delivers unmatched performance and versatility, providing UAV developers with a powerful, all-in-one solution for multi-domain operations. With its robust, customizable design and extensive functionality, Mahymah is engineered to support complex missions across diverse environments, and integrates comprehensive features -
We've made several critical design choices based on real-world operational needs -
Triple IMU Redundancy: The Inertial Measurement Unit is the most critical sensor in flight control. Unlike other sensors, IMU failure is catastrophic, and must therefore get priority in any design.
Dual Barometer Redundancy: Barometers play a vital role in altitude estimation and flight stability. A single barometer might be susceptible to localized pressure variations or sensor-failure, and incorporating dual high-precision barometers provides redundancy that improves reliability and accuracy.
This redundancy is particularly vital for operations in populated areas or sensitive zones where failure is not an option.
Separation between Core Flight Controller and Carrier Board: The Flight Controller will be separated into two distinct modules -
This design allows adaptability whilst maintaining reliability in the core flight stabilization system.
Micro SD Card vs. Onboard Flash: Our choice of removable SD storage over integrated flash memory serves three practical purposes -
Integrated ESD Protection and EMI filtering: Recognizing the harsh and unpredictable environments UAVs operate in, we have incorporated robust ESD protection on all human-accessible interfaces. This safeguards the flight controller against electrostatic discharge damage during handling and operation, significantly improving hardware durability and mission reliability.
EMI filtering on the Micro SD Card slot further ensures that critical flight data is not lost/corrupted by electromagnetic noise and interference.
Edge AI and Machine-Vision Integration: To strengthen autonomy and mission resilience, we intend to integrate Edge AI capabilities directly into the flight controller via a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This allows the system to run inference in real-time for tasks like anomaly detection, obstacle avoidance, and vision-based navigation.
By processing critical decisions locally with low latency, the UAV can maintain intelligent, fail-safe operation even in communication-denied or GPS-degraded environments.
Processing data at the Ground Control Station might seem easier and more cost-effective, but introduces several risks rendering it unsuitable for critical operations. Tasks like real-time object detection, visual tracking, optical flow, and SLAM demand low-latency inference to support fast-moving drones in complex environments.
High communication latency can cause a moving UAV to receive obstacle avoidance commands too late. At merely 50ms latency, a UAV moving at just 15m/s will cover a few meters before the sensor data is sent to the GCS, processed and the results received, which is too late to avoid a collision.
By running computer vision directly onboard the flight controller, sub-millisecond inference times are achieved, enabling autonomous navigation, target following, and situational awareness even in unstable conditions — a critical capability for safe, intelligent operation in real-world missions.
These design decisions reflect our focus on creating not just a technically advanced flight controller, but one that addresses the practical operational challenges of multi-domain UAV deployments in demanding environments.
The name "Mahymah" derives from the Sanskrit term mahimā - representing the supernatural ability to expand one's size. This ancient concept, one of the 8 siddhis (supernatural abilities) from Indian philosophy, perfectly encapsulates our design philosophy: unleashed power, packed with features and unparalleled performance.
In Hindu mythology, this ability was notably utilized by Lord Hanuman during the Ramayana for missions requiring endurance over large distances or immense strength — precisely the qualities our flight controller delivers to versatile mission capable UAVs.
Beyond technical specifications, this name honors our Indian heritage while signifying our global vision - indigenous technology crafted in India for worldwide deployment.
The Indian UAV market is experiencing remarkable growth, valued at $1.77 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $4 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 9.5%[1]. India's UAV industry is entering a new phase of growth, driven by increasing demand for advanced platforms capable of executing complex missions in agriculture, surveillance, urban development, logistics and research. As UAV applications expand in scope and sophistication, there is a growing need for flight controllers that offer higher computational performance, sensor integration, and communication flexibility while maintaining reliability under mission-critical conditions.
Most domestic flight controllers follow outdated designs inspired by hobby-grade standards, often lacking the robustness, security, and sensor integration required for complex real-world deployments. Imported solutions, while feature-rich, bring risks of cost escalation, limited customization, and supply-chain bottlenecks.
Mahymah addresses this challenge by delivering an indigenous, feature-packed flight controller designed specifically for multi-domain UAV operations. Its architecture supports high-throughput sensor fusion, robust communication interfaces, modular peripheral expansion, and industrial-grade redundancy while enabling advanced AI and computer vision capabilities such as object tracking, GPS-denied navigation, and visual SLAM. This empowers Indian drone manufacturers to build intelligent, secure, and autonomous platforms for surveillance, logistics, disaster response, and beyond.
This aligns directly with India's strategic initiatives under Atmanirbhar Bharat reducing reliance on foreign systems and enabling sovereign technological capabilities.
Rather than rushing to market with an untested design, we're implementing a comprehensive, methodical development process that ensures exceptional reliability and performance. The process is divided into the following broad phases -
In this phase, components are selected to fill the various roles on the flight controller, and an evaluation board/kit is designed to test each component individually. The evaluation boards are meticulously designed, fabricated and assembled right here in India, and allows us to -
In this phase, the evaluation boards/kits designed in the first phase are tested in isolation with software libraries developed in-house. This includes all the sensors MCU, and other peripherals. This allows us to -
Why is unit testing critical?
While it seems faster to immediately design a complete flight controller, experience has taught us otherwise. By individually testing each component on PCBs of our own design, we can quickly isolate unexpected behavior and fix them, which is tremendously faster and cheaper compared to troubleshooting them in a fully integrated system.
In this phase, the units tested (and validated) in the previous phase are put together in a single system, connected using breadboards and wires, to verify integrability and handle edge-cases. This allows us to -
Why can't we go from unit testing to the final design right away?
Integration testing reveals critical interactions between components that aren't visible during unit testing. Problems identified at this stage could require complete redesigns if discovered only after fabricating the final flight controller, and a single testing cycle can save us weeks of waiting for fabrication and significant expense.
In this phase, the final flight controller is designed, fabricated and tested in multiple real-world UAV platforms. The following steps are performed -
In this phase, the finalized design undergoes third-party testing to verify compliance with -
This systematic approach significantly reduces development risks while ensuring the final product meets the exacting standards required for professional applications. Our experience shows that this methodical process ultimately delivers a more reliable product faster and more cost-effectively than attempting to create the final design in a single step.
At Wint, we're developing an indigenous solution that addresses a critical gap in India's aerospace capabilities while setting a new benchmark for advanced UAV flight controllers. Mahymah represents our commitment to delivering cutting-edge performance, rich feature integration, and exceptional reliability for a wide range of demanding UAV applications.
As we progress through each development phase, we'll continue to share insights and milestones, building credibility and providing transparency into our engineering process. You can contact us at aerowint.com/contact or write to our founders directly at milind@aerowint.com or aditya@aerowint.com.
The future of unmanned systems demands versatile, high-performance solutions that go beyond the limitations of current platforms. With the Mahymah flight controller, we're advancing India's technological self-reliance while delivering a globally competitive product designed for the most complex missions.