Stuttgart-based founders develop technology for secure drone defense

Florian Euchner's research revolves around frequencies, signals, and radio waves. He conducts research on multi-antenna systems, known in technical jargon as “massive MIMO,” for mobile communications. “Dead spots will be a thing of the past, and fast surfing will be possible everywhere,” says Florian Euchner. After completing his studies in electrical engineering and information technology, he has been further developed his passion for application- and transfer-oriented technologies while working as a research assistant at the Institute of Telecommunications (INÜ) at the University of Stuttgart.

Since 2021, he has been conducting research on high-precision digital localization technologies based on phased array systems. In 2025, he founded the start-up ESPARGOS together with Marc Gauger. “Technical solutions such as those produced by ESPARGOS require a great deal of engineering thinking and skill,” says Professor Stephan ten Brink, who supports the start-up with scientific expertise. "That's exactly what we teach our students. We want them to feel empowered to pursue their own path in industry or science and to have the confidence to use their expertise to create innovative solutions."

The two entrepreneurs, Euchner and Gauger, see their technology as having potential beyond just improving mobile accessibility and protecting personal data. For the SPECTRA Challenge, jointly organized by the Cyberagentur, the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub (CIHBw), and the System Soldat innovation lab, the team developed a digital phased array system for real-time drone detection in just seven weeks.

Key advantage: Most systems currently in use deliver position data on attacking drones with significant delays and limited accuracy. With directional antennas, you first have to manually locate the exact direction of signals. “That takes time, which might not be available to you in dangerous situations,” explains Euchner. The idea behind digital phased array is to make defense safer, more precise, and above all, more cost-effective. “If defense is cheaper than attack, then hopefully at some point it will no longer be worthwhile to attack. Until then, our technology can save lives in emergencies."

This approach also impressed the jury of the SPECTRA Challenge. ESPARGOS prevailed over six finalists to secure first place. With the prize money of €100,000, Euchner and his founding partner Gauger now want to further develop their technology.

The start-up, which currently operates as a TGU (transfer and start-up company) under the umbrella of TTI GmbH at the University of Stuttgart, is already celebrating its first profitable results. For example, ESPARGOS tested whether a manufacturer’s Faraday bags for radio shielding were truly “interference-proof”. "We rely on commercially manufactured communication semiconductor chips, namely for Wi-Fi and mobile communications. We adapt these chips for our purposes," explains Euchner. “This has the advantage that we are significantly more cost-effective than solutions with special hardware.”

The SPECTRA Challenge was jointly organized by the Agency for Innovation in Cybersecurity GmbH (Cyberagentur), the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub, and the System Soldier Innovation Lab, with the goal of accelerating the transfer of promising research from start-ups, companies, and universities into practical solutions for protection against electronic attacks. The focus is on testing technical solutions to counteract jamming, spoofing, and electronic takeover of unmanned systems such as drones. The teams with the best solutions test their technology together with the Bundeswehr.