Hey guys, as many of you know the AeroQuad has teamed up with DIY Drones on developing a very full featured multicopter! Chris from DIY Drones has proposed the name of this new effort to be called the ArduCopter! It will be based on the ArduPilot Pro Mega (APM) and the APM sensor board currently nicknamed the Oil Pan. Here's an initial feature list and software road map. Please chime in! Your input is valuable! I'll keep updating this front page until we agree on the first version of the ArduCopter's capabilities.



ArduCopter Feature List
  • 6 Degree of Freedom IMU stabilized control
  • Gyro stabilized flight mode enabling acrobatics (loops and barrel rolls)
  • GPS for position hold
  • Magnetometer for heading determination
  • Barometer for altitude hold
  • IR sensor integration for obstacle avoidance
  • Sonar sensor for automated takeoff and landing capability
  • Automated waypoint navigation
  • Motor control using low cost standard PWM Electronics Speed Controllers (ESC's)
  • On board flight telemetery data storage
  • Mounted camera stabilization capability
  • Wireless command & telemetry for long distance communication
  • Capability to fly in "+", "x", hexa and octo configurations
  • Battery level detection
  • User configurable LED flight pattern
  • Capability to use any R/C receiver
  • ArduCopter Configuration and Ground Control Software
    • Realtime graphs of flight data
    • GUI for configuration of PID and other flight parameters
    • On Screen Display integration
    • Waypoint programming using Google Maps
    • Mixertable view to auto configure "+", "x", hexa and octo configurations
Software Roadmap
  • Initial baseline using Jose Julio's v3 software
    • Provides absolute angle PID flight control
    • Obstacle avoidance
    • Waypoint navigation
  • Generalize basic ArduCopter functions (ie. Separate PPM receiver input and motor control functions into separate libraries. Allows future coding of PWM vs. I2C ESC's)
  • Emphasis on developing new capability into easy to use C++ libraries
  • Integrate user defined EEPROM storage capability
  • Develop/optimize AeroQuad serial real-time command/telemetry for ArduCopter
  • Integrate AeroQuad Configurator for external software configuration of ArduCopter
  • Rename Configurator to Ground Control Station and integrate graphical programming of waypoint navigation
  • Integrate AeroQuad rate PID control
  • Integrate mixertable configuration for multicopter configurations
  • Integrate AeroQuad camera stabilization
  • Integrate I2C motor control
  • Develop capability to wirelessly control ArduCopter directly from Ground Control Station (USB joystick controller from laptop or through waypoint programming)