The RustVector enforcement kernel. A MAVLink-native edge relay that observes telemetry, applies deterministic Laws, and records every verdict in a hash-chained audit log.
Sentinel is four Rust crates composed in strict layers. Each crate has a single responsibility and cannot reach into a layer it does not own. The kernel enforces governance at the edge with zero cloud dependency.
MAVLink is bidirectional. Sentinel treats the two directions differently, and this page states which direction is governed today.
Telemetry is allowlisted, evaluated against Laws such as the geofence, and recorded in the hash-chained audit log. Denied frames are withheld from the GCS and logged.
Today, outbound commands are forwarded and recorded, not gated. Command-path gating, where a command reaches the autopilot only with an ALLOW verdict, is the next milestone.
Rules are evaluated on the governed link. Geofence boundary enforcement on position telemetry has shipped since Sentinel v0.2 and is current in v0.3; remaining rules are specified and stubbed in code. Command-path gating — evaluating outbound mission and control messages before they reach the autopilot — is in development.
Bounding-box containment on GLOBAL_POSITION_INT telemetry. A position outside the authorized corridor is withheld from the GCS and logged as GEOFENCE_DENY. This is violation detection on the observation path; it does not by itself stop the aircraft from crossing the boundary.
Maximum drift from authorized path. Lateral and vertical deviation computed against the planned trajectory at each waypoint segment.
Minimum charge for return-to-home. Continuous evaluation against remaining capacity and distance to home point.
Hard upper bound enforcement. AGL altitude checked against the authorized ceiling on every telemetry frame.
Mission temporal boundaries. Operations are only authorized within the briefed time window. Outside the window is a violation.
Prohibited airspace exclusion. Known restricted areas evaluated as negative geofences. Proximity triggers escalation.
Return-to-home energy guarantee. Separate from battery reserve. Ensures sufficient energy to reach the designated landing zone.
Principal authorization requirement. Validates that the active operator has the required authorization level for the current mission phase.
Every evaluation produces exactly one of three verdicts. There is no fourth option. There is no grey area.
Action within all rule boundaries. Permitted without operator intervention. Frame forwarded to autopilot. Verdict logged with full evaluation trace.
Action violates one or more rules. Denied immediately. Frame blocked from reaching autopilot. Logged with violation detail and rule identifiers.
Action within boundaries but exceeds auto-approve threshold. Frame held pending explicit principal decision. Timeout enforced by risk tier.
Every verdict is logged with full evaluation trace. Which rules fired, in what order, with what result. The audit trail records the complete decision path, not just the outcome.
Governance at the edge keeps enforcement local, with no cloud round trip. Every verdict logged, every session replayable.
Transparent MAVLink v2 forwarding with zero-copy parsing. Governance evaluated at the edge.
Append-only log with SHA256 hash chain. Every frame logged without blocking the relay pipeline.
Deterministic replay of any audit log produces identical state transitions. Every time.
Every MAVLink frame on the governed link logged and hashed. No sampling. No gaps. Complete chain of custody.
Sentinel exposes three subcommands. Each maps to a core capability of the governance engine. No configuration files. No dashboards. Just the CLI.
Start the MAVLink proxy with governance enforcement. Binds to a UDP port, applies the active rule set to telemetry from the autopilot and forwards permitted frames. Denied telemetry frames are blocked and logged. Outbound GCS commands are currently forwarded and recorded, not yet gated.
Replay an audit log file deterministically. Reproduce the exact sequence of evaluations and verdicts from a previous session. Verify that the same inputs produce the same outputs.
Verify hash chain integrity of an audit log. Walk the chain from first entry to last. Any break in the hash sequence indicates tampering or corruption.
Sentinel's architecture aligns with the direction of emerging regulatory and procurement requirements for autonomous drone operations. Deterministic enforcement and tamper-evident audit trails are designed as architectural primitives.
Proposed BVLOS frameworks point toward requirements for machine-enforceable geofencing and auditable decision trails. Sentinel provides both as architectural primitives.
Growing legislative emphasis on machine-readable, enforceable geofence boundaries. Sentinel evaluates polygon containment on every telemetry frame with full audit trail.
Defense procurement increasingly emphasizes deterministic, auditable governance for autonomous systems. Sentinel's replay capability enables post-mission verification of every decision.
Sentinel v0.3 denies GLOBAL_POSITION_INT telemetry frames outside the configured bounding box and streams verdicts over a live audit WebSocket. Clone, build, and run against PX4 SITL — see the repo DEMO.md and docs/DEMO_VIDEO.md.
Sentinel is one layer of the Flightworks governance stack. Understand how the SwiftVector kernel, FlightLaw, and the Watch Station principal interface compose into a complete mission governance platform.