IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - 42
*
Table 8. Comparison of functionality between the OSPs.
Attitude estimation
algorithm
GPS-based waypoint
navigation
Altitude hold
Hardware in the loop
simulation
Support of other
multirotor airframes
Support of computer
vision
GCS provided
Airframe design
providedb
Camera stabilization
Availabilityc
Arducopter
Openpilot
Paparazzi
Pixhawk
KKmultiMikrokopter copter
Multiwii
NCF
EKF
NCF
EKF
LCF
-
LCF
NCF
-
D
D
Da
-
p
p
-
-
-
-
-
-
p
p
-
-
p
D
p
p
p
p
D
p
p
p
p
-
-
-
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
-
p
-
p
p
-
p
p
p
-
-
-
-
-
D
p
-
p
-
d
Open-source license
LGPL
GPL
GPL
GPL
D
Used by
[26], [27]
-
-
[28], [12]
[29], [30]
-
-
p
-
p
-
Aeroquad
p
-
p
-
p
p
p
p
-
GPL
GPL
-
-
-
p
: supported, D: partially supported (e.g., additional navigation electronics), -: not supported.
Only GPS-based homing is supported.
The project provides a quadrotor airframe design in computer-aided design files.
c
The project avionics on sale.
d
Only noncommercial purposes.
a
b
integrator involved and K is fully known, which is not
always the case for typical quadrotors in the market.
Controller Parameters
Control structure and the number of gains to be tuned
in each project are shown in Table 7. KKmulticopter is
the simplest one, which has only one gain for tuning.
Among many controller configurations, PI+P is dominant. P is for the inner loop (rate feedback), and PI is
for the forward attitude error compensation.
Selection Guidelines
We have analyzed eight OSPs with attitude estimation
algorithm, control configuration, electronic components,
and features. A comparison of features between OSPs is
given in Table 8.
©PIXHAWK TEAM CC BY-SA V3
©PIXHAWK TEAM CC BY-SA V3
Controller Evaluation
We have constructed quadrotors using five different autopilots among mentioned OSPs: the Arducopter, Paparazzi,
Mikrokopter, KKmulticopter, and Multiwii. Among these
projects, Arducopter, Paparazzi, and Multiwii share the
same controller composition as shown in Table 7. For
qualitative evaluation, we mount markers on a quadrotor
to acquire ground-truth data from the Vicon system. The
desired angle is transmitted to the Arducopter-based quadrotor while quadrotor attitude from the Vicon and the
transmitted commands are recorded simultaneously. The
satisfactory attitude tracking result is shown in Figure 11.
The delay is due to RC signal processing.
(a)
(b)
Figure 12. Pixhawk-based quadrotor platform with a camera and onboard computer
[31]. (a) Pixhawk quadrotor platform and (b) flight environment of the Pixhawk
quadrotor with ARToolkit markerboard on the floor.
42
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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
*
SEPTEMBER 2012
Availability of Flight Avionics
All the projects we described provide
electronic schematic and bill of materials to reproduce their flight avionics. However, it takes high initial cost
to manufacture electronics individually. Only five projects among them
are available for purchase now:
Arducopter, Paparazzi, Mikrokopter,
KKmulticopter, and Aeroquad. It is
recommended to start with these
projects if a reader prefers to avoid
electronics fabrication.
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