Experience: Evaluating Real-Time Drone OS Under Extreme and Adversarial Environment

Reliable drone operation in real-time is critical for missions in extreme environments such as post-disaster zones or contested airspace, where timing failures can lead to catastrophic outcomes. We develop a Software-in-the-Loop framework to evaluate drone operating systems under stress, focusing on latency, jitter, and resource contention. These metrics directly impact flight stability, responsiveness, and safety in uncertain or degraded conditions. Our approach enables systematic testing of flight software behavior in adversarial scenarios that are difficult to reproduce in the field.