How It Works

(Plain-language version of the technical architecture in the repo’s KNOWLEDGE.md and README.md.)

The one-sentence version

Everything — phones, the drone, satellite beacons — reports to a shared server in the cloud, and that server keeps every screen showing the same live map.

The picture

                     ☁️  CLOUD SERVER (always on, rented)
                     ├── TAK server  = the shared map
                     └── MediaMTX    = the video switchboard
                          ▲                ▲               ▲
            positions,    │                │ drone video   │ beacon
            messages      │                │               │ positions
                          │                │               │
   ┌──────────────────────┴───┐   ┌────────┴─────────┐   ┌─┴──────────────┐
   │ Searchers' phones        │   │ Skydio X10 drone │   │ Somewear cloud │
   │ (ATAK / iTAK / browser)  │   │ + controller     │   │ (satellite)    │
   │ via village Starlink     │   │ via Starlink     │   │                │
   └──────────────────────────┘   └──────────────────┘   └─▲──────────────┘
                                                           │ Iridium satellites
                                                    ┌──────┴─────────┐
                                                    │ Somewear beacon│
                                                    │ on each        │
                                                    │ searcher       │
                                                    └────────────────┘

Why the server is in the cloud, not the village

Starlink is excellent at calling out but does not let outside computers call in (a limitation called CGNAT). A server in Quinhagak would be invisible to Eek, Goodnews Bay, and the Somewear system. A small rented cloud server (~$12–24/month) has a public address that everything can reach — and every part of our system only ever needs to call out.

What happens when the internet goes down

The system degrades gracefully instead of failing:

Satellite beacons keep working. Somewear uses Iridium satellites, not Starlink — searchers stay on each other’s maps and can still message.
Phones on the same WiFi still see each other. TAK apps share positions directly on a local network without any server.
The drone still flies and records. Video sharing to remote viewers pauses; local operations continue.
(Future) Meshtastic radios add a third layer that needs no infrastructure at all.

What each person carries

Role	Carries	Sees
Searcher	Phone with ATAK/iTAK + a Somewear beacon	The whole team + drone on their phone
Drone operator	Skydio controller (its screen runs the map too)	Flight view + team map
Coordinator	Any computer with a browser (CloudTAK) or WinTAK	Everything, on a big screen

Is it private?

Yes. Connections to the server are encrypted, each member gets their own login/certificate, and the server is ours — no public map, no public video. (Somewear and Skydio see their own devices’ data, as they do today.)