Software connects much of the drone workflow, from configuring an aircraft and planning a mission to processing data and managing a fleet. This section covers ground-control applications, autopilot software, mission planners, mapping and inspection tools, data platforms, APIs, updates, compatibility, and the practical tradeoffs behind choosing one software stack over another.
Topic
Drone Software: Flight Planning, Control, Processing and Fleet Tools
Latest topic news
QGroundControl adds proposed USB recognition for ZeroOne M9 and X9 boards
QGroundControl PR 15437 proposes recognizing the ZeroOne M9 and X9 by USB vendor/product identity and classifying them as Pixhawk devices during connection.
Read newsArduPilot SITL UART proposal prevents shutdown hangs with unread serial data
ArduPilot PR 34977 reports that SITL's UARTDriver:: flush() can wait forever during reboot if the SERIAL0 client stops reading or closes, or if baud limiting is enabled. It proposes bounded shutdown behavior.
Read newsMission Planner proposes repairing blank Android maps without restarting
Mission Planner PR 3862 reports that the Android Flight Data and Plan views may show an empty map while overlay controls still appear. It proposes restoring control double buffering under XplatUIMine.
Read newsArduPilot AP_Periph reviews off-by-one tunnel serial-port validation
ArduPilot PR 35064 changes a port check that rejected serial IDs only above an array's element count; a value equal to the count could pass and index beyond the final valid entry.
Read newsBetaflight VTX table command proposal closes a frequency-array write boundary
Betaflight PR 15989 describes an optional FACTORY or CUSTOM flag in vtxtable band parsing that leaves the channel index at -1 when writing frequencies. The proposed fix advances the parser correctly.
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A self-balancing propeller pole exposes the limits of control bandwidth
Four FPV-sized propellers can hold a long carbon-fibre pole upright for hours without lifting it off the ground. That sounds like a strange endurance record for a quadcopter. It is actually a cleaner demonstration of a different problem: the speed at which an actuator can correct an error matters more than the peak force it can produce .
Read articleESC passthrough is a controlled handoff, not a spare serial port
An ESC configurator runs on a computer, while the electronic speed controller sits behind the flight controller on an aircraft. The laptop has USB; the ESC generally has a motor signal connection that is being used for something else. Letting the configurator read settings or flash firmware therefore requires a temporary change in ownership of that connection.
Read articleA camera model name should not decide where a ground station writes files
An onboard camera needs a name so that a ground-control application can show its settings. It should not get to choose a directory on the operator's computer.
Read articleBetaflight yaw spin recovery: why a clipped quad spins up, the AUTO threshold and gyro overflow detect
Clip a gate, a branch or the ground at the wrong angle and a quad can start spinning flat on yaw, warbling and climbing while the sticks do nothing. The Betaflight wiki calls this Yaw Spin To The Moon (YSTTM). Betaflight 3.4 added two pieces of code to deal with it: yaw spin recovery and gyro overflow detection. Both are on by default, and most pilots never need to touch them. It still helps to know what they do, because the wrong threshold shows up as strange yaw stutter in normal flight.
Read articleSurviving a wall strike is not the same as recovering flight control
A quadcopter that survives a collision can still fall out of the air. The frame may remain intact while the aircraft tumbles, the propellers lose useful orientation and the state estimator stops trusting measurements that no longer resemble ordinary flight. Collision tolerance therefore has two distinct tests: whether the machine survives the impact, and whether it can regain controlled flight afterward.
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