LibrePilot
Free software UAV project for multi-rotor and fixed-wing craft.
LibrePilot is a free software project for unmanned aerial vehicles, designed to work with model aircraft including multi-rotor and fixed-wing types. It originated as a fork of OpenPilot in July 2015. OpenPilot itself was created in late 2009 by David Ankers, Angus Peart, and Vassilis Varveropoulos, intended as a learning tool and to fill gaps the developers saw in other small UAV platforms. The OpenPilot software is released under the GPL version 3 license.
The OpenPilot project had two main components: the on-board firmware, written in C, and the ground control station (GCS), written in C++ using Qt. The hardware is based on the STM32 microcontroller and consists of two physical boards. The main board holds the core microcontroller, an SD socket, a barometer, and servo connectors. The second board, the AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System), contains the sensor hardware.
The OpenPilot AHRS is a 9DOF (nine degrees of freedom) unit, incorporating MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers, and a three-axis magnetometer. It has its own Cortex M3 microcontroller that runs a Kalman filter. Filtered orientation data and inertial measurements are sent to the main board via an SPI interface. The AHRS board includes an STM32 F1 (STM32F103C8) microcontroller, three ADXRS610 rate gyros, one HMC5843 magnetometer, and one LIS344ALH three-axis accelerometer. The OpenPilot software could be paired with hardware such as an inertial navigation system board, a main control board, a GPS receiver, and a 2.4 GHz serial communications link to a ground station.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- LibrePilot Team
- Latest Release Version
- 16.09
- Latest Release Date
- 2016-12-18
- Programming Language
- C and C++
- Operating System
- Cross-platform Windows, Mac OS, Linux & Android
- Genre
- Unmanned aerial vehicle
- License
- GPLv3
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
LibrePilot originated as a fork of the OpenPilot project in July 2015. OpenPilot had been launched in late 2009 by David Ankers, Angus Peart, and Vassilis Varveropoulos as both a learning tool and to address perceived gaps in other small UAV platforms. The project consists of two component parts: on-board firmware written in C, and a ground control station written in C++ using Qt. The on-board hardware is based on the STM32 microcontroller and comprises two physical boards: the main OpenPilot board containing the core microcontroller, SD socket, barometer, and servo connectors; and the AHRS board containing the sensor hardware. The AHRS is a 9DOF unit with MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers, and a 3-direction magnetometer, plus its own Cortex M3 microcontroller running a Kalman filter, communicating with the main board via SPI.
Reader's Guide
The LibrePilot project continues the OpenPilot legacy of providing an open-source autopilot system for model aircraft. Its significance lies in being a free software alternative that supports both multi-rotor and fixed-wing platforms, with a modular hardware design separating the microcontroller board from the sensor board. The use of a dedicated AHRS board with its own microcontroller and Kalman filter for sensor fusion represents a notable design choice. The project's release under GPL version 3 ensures its code remains freely available and modifiable. By forking from OpenPilot in July 2015, LibrePilot established an independent development path while retaining the original project's architecture and goals.
Did You Know?
- LibrePilot was forked from OpenPilot in July 2015.
- The ground control station software is written in C++ using Qt.
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