Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Autopilots for small unmanned aerial vehicles: A survey

  • Regular Papers
  • Control Applications
  • Published:
International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents a survey of the autopilot systems for small or micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The objective is to provide a summary of the current commercial, open source and research autopilot systems for convenience of potential small UAV users. The UAV flight control basics are introduced first. The radio control system and autopilot control system are then explained from both the hardware and software viewpoints. Several typical off-the-shelf autopilot packages are compared in terms of sensor packages, observation approaches and controller strengths. Afterwards some open source autopilot systems are introduced. Conclusion is made with a summary of the current autopilot market and a remark on the future development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. S. A. Cambone, K. J. Krieg, P. Pace, and L. Wells, ’USA’s Unmanned Aircraft Roadmap, 2005–2030, National Defense, 2005.

  2. H. Wu, D. Sun, and Z. Zhou, “Micro air vehicle: Configuration, analysis, fabrication, and test,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 108–117, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. J. M. Sullivan, “Evolution or revolution? The rise of UAVs,” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 43–49, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. H. Chao, M. Baumann, A. Jensen, Y. Q. Chen, Y. Cao, W. Ren, and M. McKee, “Bandreconfigurable multi-UAV-based cooperative remote sensing for real-time water management and distributed irrigation control,” Proc. IFAC World Congress, pp. 11744–11749, 2008.

  5. J. Pappalardo, “Unmanned aircraft roadmap reflects changing priorities,” National Defense, vol. 87, no. 392, pp. 30, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  6. B. L. Stevens and F. L. Lewis, Aircraft Control and Simulation, John Wiley & Sons, Second edition, 2003.

  7. M. Liu, G. K. Egan, and Y. Ge, “Identification of attitude flight dynamics for an unconventional UAV,” Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 3243–3248, 2006.

  8. www.u-nav.com.

  9. www.sparkfun.com.

  10. P. Brisset, A. Drouin, M. Gorraz, P. S. Huard, and J. Tyler, “The Paparazzi solution,” Proc. of MAV2006, Sandestin, Florida, 2006.

  11. G. K. Egan, “The use of infrared sensors for absolute attitude determination of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Tech. Rep. MECSE-22-2006, Monash University, Australia, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  12. www.fmadirect.com.

  13. A. J. Calise, E. N. Johnson, M. D. Johnson, and J. E. Corban, “Applications of adaptive neural-network control to unmanned aerial vehicles,” Proc. of AIAA/ICAS Int. Air and Space Symposium and Exposition: The Next 100 Years, Dayton, OH, 2003.

  14. D. Damien, B. Wageeh, and W. Rodney, “Fixedwing attitude estimation using computer vision based horizon detection,” Proc. Australian Int. Aerospace Congress, Melbourne Australia, 2007.

  15. P. J. Roberts, R. A. Walker, and P. J. O’shea, “Fixed wing UAV navigation and control through integrated GNSS and vision,” Proc. AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conf. and Exhibit, San Francisco, CA, 2005.

  16. J. Jang and D. Liccardo, “Automation of small UAVs using a low cost MEMS sensor and embedded computing platform,” Proc. Digital Avionics Systems Conf., IEEE/AIAA, pp. 1–9, 2006.

  17. R. Beard, D. Kingston, M. Quigley, D. Snyder, R. Christiansen, W. Johnson, T. Mclain, and M. Goodrich, “Autonomous vehicle technologies for small fixed wing UAVs,” AIAA J. Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 92–108, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. www.micropilot.com.

  19. www.cloudcaptech.com.

  20. M. Kumon, Y. Udo, H. Michihira, M. Nagata, I. Mizumoto, and Z. Iwai, “Autopilot system for Kiteplane,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 615–624, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. E. N. Johnson and S. Kannan, “Adaptive flight control for an autonomous unmanned helicopter,” Proc. of AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conf., No. AIAA-2002-4439, Monterey, CA, 2002.

  22. F. Santoso, M. Liu, and G. K. Egan, “Linear quadratic optimal control synthesis for a UAV,” Proc. of 12th Australian Int. Aerospace Congress, AIAC12, Melbourne, Australia, 2007.

  23. M. Sadraey and R. Colgren, “2 DOF robust nonlinear autopilot design for a small uav using a combination of dynamic inversion and H-infinity loop shaping,” Proc. of AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conf. and Exhibit, San Francisco, California, No. AIAA-2005-6402, Aug. 2005.

  24. H. Chao, Y. Luo, L. Di, and Y. Q. Chen, “Fractional order flight control of a small fixed-wing uav: controller design and simulation study,” Proc. ASME Int. Design Engineering Technical Conf. Computers and Information in Engineering, No. MESA-87574, 2009.

  25. A. Vahedipour and J. P. Bobis, “Smart autopilots,” Proc. of Int. Conf. Industrial Electronics, Control, Instrumentation, and Automation, vol. 3, pp. 1437–1442, 1992.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. S. Sukkarieh, E. Nettleton, J. H. Kim, M. Ridely, A. Gokotogan, and H. Durrant-Whyte, “The ANSER project: data fusion across multiple uninhabited air vehicles,” Int. J. of Robotics Research, vol. 22, no. 7–8, pp. 505–539, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. B. Bethke, M. Valenti, and J. How, “Cooperative vision based estimation and tracking using multiple UAVs,” Advances in Cooperative Control and Optimization, pp. 179–189, 2007.

  28. T. Furukawa, F. Bourgault, H. F. Durrant-Whyte, and G. Dissanayake, “Dynamic allocation and control of coordinated UAVs to engage multiple targets in a time-optimal manner,” Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automation, pp. 2353–2358, 2004.

  29. B. Lavis, Y. Yokokohji, and T. Furukawa, “Estimation and control for cooperative autonomous searching in crowded urban emergencies,” Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automation, pp. 2831–2836, 2008.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Utah State University, 4160 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-4160, USA

    HaiYang Chao, YongCan Cao & YangQuan Chen

Authors
  1. HaiYang Chao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. YongCan Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. YangQuan Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to HaiYang Chao.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Hyun Seok Yang. This work is supported in part by Utah Water Research Lab (UWRL) Seed Grant (2006–2010) on “Development of Inexpensive UAV Capability for High-Resolution Remote Sensing of Land Surface Hydrologic Processes: Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture”. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments that help improve this paper.

HaiYang Chao received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering both from Zhejiang University, China, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Utah State University. His research interests include cooperative control, cooperative remote sensing, distributed control, mobile sensor networks and flight control of unmanned aerial vehicles.

YongCan Cao received the B.S. degree from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, in 2003 and the M.S. degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, in 2006. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Utah State University. His research interests include cooperative control, robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles.

YangQuan Chen is currently an associate professor of electrical engineering at Utah State University, Logan, and the Director of the Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems. In addition to 13 granted and two pending U.S. patents, he has published over 100 refereed journal papers, over 20 refereed book chapter papers, over 200 refereed conference papers, and more than 50 industrial technical reports. He has coauthored three research monographs (Springer 1999, 2007, 2009) and six textbooks (Tsinghua University Press 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008; SIAM Press 2007; CRC Press, 2008). His current areas of research interests include: applied fractional calculus, distributed measurement and distributed control of distributed parameter systems using mobile actuator and sensor networks, mechatronics and controls (intelligent, optimal, robust, nonlinear and adaptive), UAV multi-spectral cooperative remote sensing and real-time water management and irrigation control.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chao, H., Cao, Y. & Chen, Y. Autopilots for small unmanned aerial vehicles: A survey. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 8, 36–44 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-010-0105-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-010-0105-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation