The PX4 team is pleased to announce early availability of the PX4 autopilot platform, with hardware available immediately from 3D Robotics.
The platform is a low cost, modular, open hardware and software design targeting high-end research, hobby and industrial autopilot applications.
PX4 is an expandable, modular system comprising the PX4FMU Flight Management Unit (autopilot) and a number of optional interface modules.
The PX4FMU autopilot features include:
- 168Mhz ARM CortexM4F microcontroller with DSP and floating-point hardware acceleration.
- 1024KiB of flash memory, 192KiB of RAM.
- MEMS accelerometer and gyro, magnetometer and barometric pressure sensor.
- Flexible expansion bus and onboard power options.
Expansion modules available at release include:
- PX4IOAR This module interfaces PX4 to the AR.Drone motor controllers, allowing a complete quadrotor to be assembled using an AR.Drone frame and motors.
- PX4IO A flexible interface module with support for eight PWM servo outputs, relays, switched power and more.
As an open hardware design, third-party and DIY expansion modules can be easily developed for specific applications, and more PX4 modules are in development.
In addition to the versatile hardware platform, PX4 introduces a sophisticated, modular software environment built on top of a POSIX-like realtime operating system. The modular architecture and operating system support greatly simplify the process of experimenting with specific components of the system, as well as reducing the barriers to entry for new developers.
Adding support for new sensors, peripherals and expansion modules is straightforward due to standardized interface protocols between software components. Onboard microSD storage permits high-rate logging and data storage for custom applications. MAVLink protocol support provides direct integration with existing ground control systems including QGroundControl and the APM Mission Planner.
Pricing of the PX4 components reflects more than a year of careful development and a strong commitment from our manufacturing partner.
This release is targeted at early adopters and developers looking for a more capable platform than existing low-cost autopilots. With more than an order of magnitude more processing power and memory compared to popular 8-bit autopilot platforms, PX4 is exceptional value for money and provides substantial room for future growth.
For more information about the PX4 autopilot platform, visit the project website at http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/px4/
PX4 modules can be purchased from our manufacturing partner, 3DRobotics.
Comments
@Crasher
I'm not sure "firmware" is the right word for it, but those PixHawk guys have their own software stack. At the bottom they have an operating system called NuttX (a type of real-time UNIX). On top of that they have device drivers and such creating a "Hardware Abstraction Layer", with is used by application software at the top of the stack.
Also, Robero Navoni's comment was that he has already been maintaining an ArduCopter port on another ARM platform (VR Brain), and he expects/intends to port that to the PX4 hardware. So then there should be at least two types of software that can use this hardware.
Since Ardu* uses MavLink (which was created by PixHawk), they already operate in the same "software ecosystem". Because STM32/ARM7 is a popular choice for other full-featured autopilot platforms (Paparazzi and OpenPilot for example), it seems possible that there could eventually be even more choices regard to the software that you can run on the PX4 in the future, now that 3DR have decided to produce it in quantity.
Having said that, NuttX looks pretty cool and I'm keen to check that out too :)
@Alex the design will be available shortly as fully open hardware, like almost all other 3DR products are. We just want to make sure to have everything tidy and nice for the hardware files release.
Regarding the firmware: The PX4 software stack contains two layers - the operating system and the sensor drivers and then the actual high-level autopilot code. The OS and drivers are fully operational and we have autopilot code for the AR.Drone ready, with fixed-wing to be finished shortly. In addition to that, as mentioned in previous posts, work is under way to have some well-established codebases ported to NuttX.
Great work, this board looks awsome! Is this board going to actually be open hardware? IE github access to the latest design files/ BOM/ gerbers etc?? Or will it just be limited access to some files that are never updated?
Please dont get me wrong, I have no problem with either way, since there are many cloners who just replicate and give no credit to origional developers. Its just that its not truly open hardware?
@PX4 Thank you! I'm also really interested in your forthcoming onboard computer offering!
Congratulations, incredible work! I think this is just about everything one could ask for from a microcontroller-powered autopilot. (And great documentation too!)
I notice that on the wiring page, there is a guide for connecting the STM32F4 Discovery board. Are there more details anywhere for trying out NuttX on that board? Not sure if I can justify buying the PX4 hardware, but I'd like to try some of the software.
@Ruwan: The AR.Drone is just one of the platforms, you can also output PWM or Mikrokopter/Asctec ESC I2C signals. We should have soon a guide up how to run the ArduCopter and Mikrokopter frames with it. Mechanically it does fit both, the 30x30 mm M3 holes do directly fit both frames without modifications.
@ThomasB: We do not actually produce hardware, that is solely done by 3DR in California. I don't have any distributor details yet, but it is a safe assumption that any 3DR distributor will also make this product available. Since shipping is however very affordable, you can safely order in the meantime directly from 3DR.
Thomas: The boards are made in the US by 3D Robotics. The regular 3DRobotics/DIY Drones distributors in Europe will be able to stock them locally.
If I'm right the pixhawk team is located in europe.
DIY Drones are located in the states. So if I want to order some boards, pixhawk will send them to california and from there back to europe. right?
Or in other words, will there be a direct europe distribution channel in the future?
Great!. probably too early to ask, but if we use an on board computer[1], we might need to use different set of motors and propellers (rather than AR Drone stuff), right? given the weight considerations?
[1] https://pixhawk.ethz.ch/px4/modules/onboard_computers
@Hai - what you are describing is, to a degree, the way that the PX4 software system works.
Rather than being a single, monolithic piece of software, it's built up from components that communicate in standardized ways, and many of those components can be re-used in more than one vehicle configuration.
I don't want to over-simplify the situation because navigation is a complex problem, but the intent of the design is to make it easier to focus on specific problems - say, making your vehicle handle well - without having to invent all of the other functionality all over again.
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