Avionics for Self-autonomous Gliders

Hi everyone!

I am currently trying to design self autonomous glider that will simply glide itself to a designated target area. With that being said, there is no propulsion on this aircraft, only two servos for the ailerons on the sides to help keep the aircraft stable in the air. The necessary sensors in mind would be a GPS and gyroscope to track itself relative to the target and to keep the aircraft stable in flight. I have been doing some research into how to correctly go about doing this, but I do need some help. I have seen flight controllers on here, but they seem to do a lot more than what my craft would need to be capable of doing. In theory all I would need is to actuate the servos when hitting the target area and to keep it level. My question is: Is a flight controller necessary in this situation? Or would it be easier and lighter to just use an arduino to rig a system with the sensors themselves? Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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  • Excellent. You're most welcome.

  • Hey thank you for the response! I was researching flight controllers today and that link you provided really clears things up. Super appreciate it!

    Hans Miller said:

    I think the easier way to do this is to simply use an ardupilot based flight controller. Seeing as the firmware supports gliders, it's really a no-brainer. Sure, you could do it yourself from scratch, but I'm sure your time is worth much more than the cost of an autopilot.

    Arduplane glider

    Avionics for Self-autonomous Gliders
    Hi everyone! I am currently trying to design self autonomous glider that will simply glide itself to a designated target area. With that being said,…
  • I think the easier way to do this is to simply use an ardupilot based flight controller. Seeing as the firmware supports gliders, it's really a no-brainer. Sure, you could do it yourself from scratch, but I'm sure your time is worth much more than the cost of an autopilot.

    Arduplane glider

    Soaring — Plane documentation
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