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Flight Deck & Vertical Innovation · Research Platform

Meet DEXI‑10. In development

Research takes flight.

DEXI‑10 is the top of the flight path, a research-class quadcopter, with a full Raspberry Pi 5 + custom HAT for serious onboard compute. Carries up to 3 lb (1.36 kg) of payload, flies on optical flow indoors and out, and has the headroom for autonomy research and industry applications.

Get the DEXI‑10 Developer Kit See the curriculum →
In development
At a glance
What defines DEXI‑10
Pi 5 + HATFull Raspberry Pi 5Servo, GPIO and an M.2 slot
3 lbPayload capacity1.36 kg of sensors, gripper or LiDAR
FlowOutdoor & indoorGPS add-on coming soon

DEXI‑10 is in active development. Everything on this page describes the aircraft as it stands in September 2026. Specifications will change before it ships.

Talk to us about early access →
Why DEXI‑10

A research platform that flies.

DEXI‑10 is the top rung of the flight path, a research-class airframe built for the work professional PX4 developers prototype on. A full Raspberry Pi 5 on a custom DroneBlocks HAT gives it more onboard compute than any other DEXI: enough for serious computer vision, AI, and ROS 2 autonomy.

A real research platform

A research-class airframe of the kind professional PX4 developers prototype on, sized and built for serious work.

Full Raspberry Pi 5 compute

A complete Pi 5 on a custom DroneBlocks HAT: more headroom than any other DEXI for vision, AI, and ROS 2.

Built for payloads

The airframe carries up to 3 lb (1.36 kg) of real sensors: cameras, LiDAR, manipulators, not just a flight controller.

Outdoor + payloads

optical flow for missions indoors and out, and the open platform for multi-drone coordination.

Industry-grade stack

PX4 + ROS 2 + C++, the exact same tools shipping in commercial and research drones today.

Caps the flight path

The top rung, the platform for applied research and capstone work after Hover Lab and Flight Deck.

The DroneBlocks HAT

The Pi 5 talks
to the real world.

Every DEXI‑10 carries a Raspberry Pi 5 on a HAT we designed ourselves. It is what turns a companion computer into a robotics controller: servos, GPIO, an M.2 slot and two dedicated links to the flight controller, with no breakout boards and no USB adapters.

Plan view of the DroneBlocks Pi HAT. Silkscreen labels mark, clockwise from the left edge, the PCIe flat-cable connector, the M.2 M-key slot, the 5 V, 3V3 and actuator power headers, the status LED, the I2C and LED connectors, and the UART0, UART1, servo and GPIO headers along the bottom. 1M.2 slot 2PCIe to the Pi 5 3UART0 4UART1 5I2C 6Servo 0-4 7GPIO 0-4 8LED ring 9Power rails 10Status LED
  1. 1
    M.2 M-key slotPCIe. Takes 2230 and 2242 modules. Empty as shipped.
  2. 2
    PCIe link to the Pi 5The ribbon cable that carries PCIe up from the Pi’s connector.
  3. 3
    UART0MAVLink to the flight controller, on TELEM1.
  4. 4
    UART1ROS 2 messages to the flight controller, on TELEM2.
  5. 5
    I2CSensors and expansion, on a JST connector.
  6. 6
    Servo 0–4Five PWM channels, signal, 5 V and ground per channel.
  7. 7
    GPIO 0–4Five general-purpose IO channels, same pinout.
  8. 8
    LEDAddressable LED ring output.
  9. 9
    Power rails5 V and 3V3 headers, plus a switched 5 V output for driving actuators.
  10. 10
    StatusBoard status LED, plus PWR and ACT on the left edge.
M.2 slot

Room for an AI accelerator

The HAT carries an M.2 M-key slot on PCIe, sized for 2230 and 2242 modules, so vision work can move off the CPU when you want it to. We have an accelerator running in that slot on the bench, pictured here. It is not in the kit: today DEXI‑10 runs its detection models on the Pi 5 CPU, and the accelerated configuration is planned, not shipped.

An M.2 AI accelerator module seated in the HAT’s slot and held by its retaining screw, its shielded Hailo processor facing up.
Fitted on the bench. The module is not part of the kit.

Servo and actuator control

Five servo channels, each with signal, 5 V and ground. Grippers, gimbals, release mechanisms and pan-tilt heads take commands straight from Python, and nothing extra has to go in the payload bay to drive them. PCA9685

GPIO with 5 V actuator output

Five general-purpose pins for switching real hardware: relays, solenoids, lights. A 5 V output drives them and an I2C connector takes sensors, so nothing needs a breakout board. TCA9555

Two dedicated links to the flight controller

One link carries MAVLink, so QGroundControl and anything else that speaks it sees the aircraft as normal. The other carries ROS 2 messages straight to PX4. Two separate wires, so neither waits on the other, and no USB hub or adapter in between. UART0 and UART1

Addressable LED ring port

A dedicated header for an LED ring: flight status at a glance, team colors in a competition, or a drone in a light show.

The airframe

Straight off the CAD.

We are still building and testing the first DEXI‑10s, so there are no photographs of a finished aircraft yet. These are renders of the real Onshape assembly: the same model the build guide comes from, down to the arm spacing and the payload bay under the center plate.

CAD render of the DEXI-10 airframe seen from three-quarters: four arms with folding propellers, tall landing legs, and the companion computer enclosure sitting on the top plate.
The whole aircraftFour arms, folding props, and room under the plate for a payload. Rendered from the Onshape assembly, not photographed.
Exploded CAD render of the DEXI-10 with the frame plates, four arm assemblies, propellers, landing legs, battery tray and compute stack separated along their build axes.
Twenty-five partsEvery component separated along the axis it assembles on.
Plan view CAD render of the DEXI-10 showing the square center frame, the four arm positions and the payload area beneath.
From aboveSquare frame, four arms, and the bay a research payload bolts into.

These are renders, not photographs. We will shoot the real aircraft once the first ones are built and flying.

Where it fits

The top rung
of the flight path.

DEXI‑10 is introduced at Flight Deck and carries through Vertical Innovation. Students who built autonomy on a developer kit add a research-class airframe with a full Pi 5, big payload, and the headroom for applied research and industry applications.

Introduced at Hover Lab

DEXI‑3

An aircraft they build, Python and ROS 2, flown indoors, GPS-free.
→
Introduced at Flight Deck

DEXI‑5

ROS 2 autonomy, computer vision, and optical-flow flight indoors and out.
→
You are here
Introduced at Flight Deck

DEXI‑10

Research-class airframe, full Pi 5, payloads, and endurance.

Everything a student learned lower on the flight path carries up, the same code, the same curriculum spine, the same open platform, now flying applied research on a research-class drone.

The DEXI‑10 kit

One kit. Research-ready.

Every DEXI‑10 is a full developer kit, Raspberry Pi 5 + HAT, camera, and the open DEXI OS included. Choose how it arrives and how many.

Most popular
Developer Kit
Ready-to-Fly
Assembled, configured, and flight-tested. Open the box and start researching.
Get the Developer Kit
Classroom / Lab
Lab Pack
A set for a lab or research cohort. Volume discounts unlock with an Enterprise/Pro license.
Talk to us about a lab pack
What's in every DEXI‑10Included
Flight stack
Flight controller (PX4 1.17)✓
Optical flow + range sensor✓
GPS module (add-on, coming soon)–
4S LiPo battery + charger✓
Code stack
Raspberry Pi 5 + custom DroneBlocks HAT✓
Servo, GPIO and 5 V actuator control on the HAT✓
M.2 slot for an AI accelerator (module planned, not included)✓
Camera✓
Open DEXI OS (ROS 2 + vision)✓
Capability, every unit
DroneBlocks / Python / ROS 2 / C++ from day one✓
Computer vision & AI on the Pi 5✓
Optical-flow hover, indoors and outdoors✓
Payload capacity3 lb (1.36 kg)

Everything is included, there is no flight-only tier and no code upsell. Every DEXI‑10 is a full research developer kit.

What it unlocks

The drone is the airframe.
DEXI‑10 is the research platform.

A DEXI‑10 student finishes the term running computer vision on a full Pi 5, flying autonomous outdoor missions on optical flow, and coordinating multiple drones, on a real, open, research-class platform.

Research

Applied research & capstones

The top rung of the flight path is the platform for applied research and capstone projects: an open PX4 / ROS 2 / C++ stack with nothing locked down, sized for real college, research, and industry work.

Vision & AI

Computer vision & AI on Pi 5

A full Raspberry Pi 5, the most onboard compute in the DEXI line, runs vision and AI models natively. Object detection, tracking, and custom neural networks have real headroom to run.

Outdoor

Long missions, indoors and out

DEXI‑10 flies outdoors on optical flow today; GPS waypoint missions arrive with our add-on, coming soon, and a research-class airframe carries the payload to do useful work on those missions.

Multi-drone

Room for multi-drone work

An open platform with the compute and airframe headroom for multi-drone research, and the payload capacity for the domain applications that university labs run today.

The bridge that makes the curriculum work

Same Python script.
Sim today. Real DEXI‑10 tomorrow.

Today, in browser · DEXI Simulator + PX4 SITL

No drone. No toolchain. No install.

Students open code-server in their browser, write a MAVSDK Python script, and fly an autonomous mission in the Unity sim. No drone. No toolchain. No install.

Tomorrow, on real DEXI-10 · Same script, real flight

One line of config different.

The exact same file runs against a DEXI‑10 on the lab Wi-Fi. Same takeoff, same waypoints, same land, just one line of config different.

address = "udpin://0.0.0.0:14540" # sim address = "udpout://192.168.x.x:14540" # real DEXI-10

The whole bridge is one line. That promise is what lets a Vertical Innovation subscription deliver value the day a teacher buys it, weeks before the drone arrives, while batteries charge, when one drone has to serve thirty students. The simulator is not a toy version of the curriculum; it is the curriculum.

Recommended bundle

Vertical Innovation +
DEXI‑10 hardware

The full path is the DEXI‑10 developer kit plus a Flight Deck or Vertical Innovation subscription on my.droneblocks.io: one PO, one curriculum spine, students starting in the simulator on day one and running real research on a research-class drone the day it arrives.

Sim → Code → Fly
Every line of code lives on GitHub

Nothing about DEXI‑10
is a black box.

The drone firmware, OS image, 65+ open ROS 2 packages, and 3D-printable parts are all public. Fork them, modify them, contribute back.

DroneBlocks/dexi-os

Pre-built Linux OS image for the Raspberry Pi 5, bundled with the full ROS 2 stack and PX4 link.

github.com/DroneBlocks/dexi-os
DroneBlocks/dexi_offboard

ROS 2 offboard flight control: takeoff, land, position and velocity setpoints.

github.com/DroneBlocks/dexi_offboard
DroneBlocks/dexi-3d-prints

STL files for replacement and customization parts, the same parts shipped on the production drone.

github.com/DroneBlocks/dexi-3d-prints
Bring research to your program

A research platform your lab
can actually fly.

Get the DEXI‑10 Developer Kit Explore Vertical Innovation →