A Czech AI startup says it can detect drones by sound for €150 per sensor, and it wants to wire up power grids first

Czech startup Neuron Soundware built Sound Shield, an AI acoustic drone detection system using €100-150 sensors that consume 1W each.

Czech startup Neuron Soundware has built an AI-powered acoustic detection system called Sound Shield that identifies drones by the sound of their engines using microphone sensors that cost between €100 and €150 each. The system is designed as a passive, low-cost alternative to radar for detecting low-flying drones over cities, infrastructure, and military installations. The company, which has spent the past decade using AI to listen to industrial machinery for clients including Airbus, Siemens, and BMW, is now applying the same acoustic analysis technology to airspace defence.

Sound Shield works by deploying small sensors called nEdge Minis, each consuming just 1 watt of power, that listen continuously for drone engine signatures. The sensors report to a computing platform powered by Nvidia’s Jetson modules, which runs neural networks on-device to match incoming audio against a library of known drone acoustic profiles. When the system detects a threat, it alerts a centralised command platform with the drone’s estimated speed, altitude, and direction of movement.

The approach exploits a fundamental limitation of drone design. Radar-absorbing coatings and stealth shaping can make a drone nearly invisible to traditional detection systems, but no current technology can silence the mechanical noise of rotors and engines. Every drone produces a distinct acoustic signature that, according to Neuron Soundware, its AI can identify in real time across multiple sensor positions.

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Pavel Konečný, founder and CEO of Neuron Soundware, is pitching Sound Shield as a dual-use system that would first be deployed on electrical transformer stations. “Primarily, they can continuously monitor the health of the transformer itself and other critical components of the distribution network, detecting internal discharges, oil leaks, or other operational anomalies,” Konečný said. “At the same time, their microphones listen to the sky.”

The dual-use angle is commercially significant. Rather than asking governments to fund a standalone drone detection network from scratch, Neuron Soundware is proposing to piggyback on infrastructure that already needs acoustic monitoring. The company argues this would reduce the number of sensors required and give governments a comprehensive air defence layer with minimal additional installation and power cost