ROSflight: A Lean Open-Source Research Autopilot

Abstract

ROSflight is a lean, open-source autopilot system developed with the primary goal of supporting the needs of researchers working with micro aerial vehicle systems. The project consists of firmware designed to run on low-cost, readily available flight controller boards, as well as ROS packages for interfacing between the flight controller and application code and for simulation. The core objectives of the project are as follows: maintain a small, easy-to-understand code base; provide high-bandwidth, low-latency communication between the flight controller and application code; provide a straightforward interface to research application code; allow for robust safety pilot integration; and enable true software-in-the-loop simulation capability.