IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - 35

(a)

(d)

(b)

(e)

(c)

(f)

(g)

Figure 2. Screenshots of open-source GCS. (a) Arducopter, (b) Openpilot, (c) Paparazzi, (d) Pixhawk, (e) Mikrokopter, (f) Multiwii,
and (g) Aeroquad.

gains and receive flight data [Figure 2(b)]. On the Web
site of this project, various videos are available describing gain tuning, assembly processes, and flight principles to help users.

Mikrokopter
Mikrokopter is a quadrotor autopilot system developed by a subsidiary of HiSystems GmbH in 2006
[Figure 1(e)]. GUI-based software for gain tuning and
health monitoring is provided as shown in Figure 2(e).
Mikrokopter is operated in well-organized Internet
shops for their autopilot boards. In 2010, the University
of Tasmania and the Australian Antarctic Division made
use of Mikrokopter to monitor moss beds in Antarctica.

Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft of all types [Figure 1(c)]. It has
been in development since 2003 [13]. Originally a fixedwing autopilot, it now supports
quadrotor configurations by modifying the control mixing rule. Nine
different autopilot hardware systems
are developed under the lead of the
Paparazzi team at ENAC University.
×2
Paparazzi provides GUI-based
Clockwise Propeller
GCS with flight-path scripting that
makes mission planning in outdoors convenient [Figure 2(c)].
×2
This project uses GPL for hardware
and software.
Counterclockwise Propeller

12C, PPM

Sensors

PPM, Serial

Flight Avionics

×4

ESC

RC Receiver

Motor
Actuators

Flight Controller

Motor Controllers
s

es

rel

Wi

RS-232 Serial

Pixhawk
Pixhawk [12] uses onboard computer-vision algorithms developed
by ETHZ Computer Vision Group
[Figure 1(e)]. Among the projects
introduced here, only the Pixhawk
project has computer vision equipment which has been used in several
papers [17]-[19]. It also provides
GUI-based GCS [Figure 2(d)] called
Qgroundcontrol, which is a separate
OSP in collaboration with the
MAVlink protocol project. The
Pixhawk project is available under
the GPL.

I/O Pins

Ground Control Systems

RS-232 Serial

Figure 3. Configuration of a typical quadrotor UAV system.

SEPTEMBER 2012

*

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

*

35



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - Cover1
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - Cover3
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