Multirotor Control: Zero to Sixty

An Architectural Perspective

Karl Mortensen
10 December 2013

Abstract
Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles are transitioning from the niche hobbyist
domain to “the next big thing.” Until recently, price, component technology,
software, and domain-specific expertise kept most people from experiencing
multirotors directly. This is about to change. Price, hardware, software, and the
technical expertise involved have combined to create a confluence of
opportunity. While the potential multirotor field is vast, the technology is varied,
compatibility issues abound, jargon runs wild, the literature is informal, and
governmental regulation is uncertain. We leave government regulation
discussions to others, instead focusing on the “brains” of a multirotor system—
the flight controller. We discuss the pedigree, capability, and compatibility of
contemporary flight controllers and explore the architecture of a modern, low-
cost, open-source flight controller. We give a very brief “getting started with
multirotors” checklist and demystify the lingo. Finally, we consider the future of
the multirotor field. Multirotors are now within reach of the masses. Prospects for
multirotors are very bright, and are poised to grow substantially.

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Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction and Background ....................................................................................................................... 3
Analysis ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Brief Survey of Low-Cost Flight Controllers .............................................................................................. 5
KK2 Flight Controller $30 ...................................................................................................................... 5
Naza-M-V2 Flight Controller $380 ........................................................................................................ 5
ArduPilot APM Flight Controller $100 .................................................................................................. 6
3DR Pixhawk Flight Controller $200 ..................................................................................................... 7
Crius All-In-One V2 Pro Flight Controller $80 ....................................................................................... 7
Black Vortex Flight Controller $220 ...................................................................................................... 8
MegaPirate/MultiWii V2 AIO Flight Controller (HK V2) $50 ................................................................. 9
MultiWii Pro Flight Controller $65 ...................................................................................................... 10
Flyduino AutoQuad 6 Flight Controller $490 ...................................................................................... 11
MegaPirate X $140 .............................................................................................................................. 11
Flight Controller Pedigree ....................................................................................................................... 13
MultiWii & MegaPirate V2 AIO Flight Controller Architecture ............................................................... 14
Simplified Block Diagram .................................................................................................................... 17
Bare Minimum Starting Point ................................................................................................................. 17
Jargon .................................................................................................................................................. 18
Future Development and Predictions ..................................................................................................... 19
Sensors ................................................................................................................................................ 19
Processors ........................................................................................................................................... 19
External RF Communication ................................................................................................................ 20
Costs .................................................................................................................................................... 20
Academics and Theory ........................................................................................................................ 20
Power .................................................................................................................................................. 20
Regulations.......................................................................................................................................... 20
Future Work and Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 21
Future Work ............................................................................................................................................ 21
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 21
References .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Text References....................................................................................................................................... 22
Photographs ............................................................................................................................................ 23
Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 24

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Introduction and Background
Quadcopters, more generically known as multirotors, have been around since the 1920’s, but
they were far from the mainstream until the last four years. Controlling even fixed-wing aircraft from
the ground is inherently difficult. There are many variables to keep track of all at once, and humans are
left with only their sense of sight and sound to aid in this. Add to it the disorienting nature of incoming
versus outgoing where left and right become opposite each other, and this makes unaided flying with a
fixed-wing aircraft difficult at best. Now switch to the multirotor domain, adding four counter-rotating
propellers operating in tandem to keep a craft balanced and level in the wind and through turns, and it
quickly becomes a very complicated situation to deal with. While it is possible to fly a multirotor
unaided, it is very difficult.

Improvements in component miniaturization, battery technology, manufacturing, and

reductions in cost have brought the multirotor screaming back into the forefront. In the modern
multirotor era, people began mounting gyroscopes, accelerometers, and barometers to their hobbyist
aircraft. They turned to discrete microcontrollers to help tie these components together. As the
multirotor caught on more and more, individual flight controller boards were developed, each one
adding incrementally to the command-and-control capability of the multirotor craft. Rather than
discrete sensors, gyros, accelerometers, barometers and more were integrated into one board, with a
microcontroller to control them, and drive the motors as commanded. The feedback from these sensors
keeps a multirotor flying straight and level.

Several Multirotors of Varying Sizes. Photograph by Jose Julio.

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 As one can see from the photograph above, there are varying sizes and styles of multirotors. As
in any new field, there are also many names that describe the same idea: quadrotor, multirotor,
quadcopter, and multicopter to name a few. There are also tricopters, hexacopters, octocopters, and
many others. We treat all these rotor-based vehicles generically by using the term “multirotor” to
describe this entire class of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (sUAV).

New uses for multirotors are dreamed up every day. Amazon, the web-based shopping
company, has announced plans to deliver small packages via multirotor, beginning in the next few years.
Bradley speaks about multirotors working cooperatively to map out a collapsed building. In fact, the
Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation are working together to
“develop and implement operational and certification requirements for the operation of “public
unmanned aircraft systems” in the NAS by the 4th Quarter of 2015” ("Integration of Civil Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Roadmap"). Multirotors are certainly going
to play a sizeable role in the future.

In his IEEE Spectrum article, Waibel extols the virtues of the multirotor: “Standard helicopters
use complex mechanics to allow stable flight. Multirotors use fast onboard motor control to take care of
stability. This mechanical simplicity is also their main attraction: multirotors can navigate in three
dimensions using only four moving parts. And the high reliability of brushless motors makes them a
simpler, more reliable alternative to many traditional flying platforms” (Waibel).

Most hobbyist flight controllers do not yet have cameras, radios, full INU, nor echo location
rangefinder integrated natively into them, but we predict they will in the next two to three years. The
professional-grade flight controllers sometimes do, yet these boards can run from 10 to 20 times the
cost of a hobbyist flight control board.

This paper discusses a sampling of low-cost, hobbyist flight controllers, and then dives into the
architecture of a specific flight controller. We show some simple steps to get a multirotor into the air,
demystify the jargon surrounding this field, and finally conclude with predictions for the next generation
of flight controllers.

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Analysis
Brief Survey of Low-Cost Flight Controllers
Following are some low-cost flight controllers available for purchase today. The “ancient”
history of modern flight controllers is just over four years old at this point (2013). There is a broad
spectrum of capability and cost in the hobbyist devices available today.

KK2 Flight Controller $30

The KK2 is a somewhat primitive flight controller that almost didn’t make the “modern” list, but
it was the starting point a few years ago. It is available for purchase today, but it really doesn’t do much
compared with others today. It has a piezoelectric buzzer, a gyro, a small AVR microcontroller, and an
LCD display. The LCD display will help with configuration, setup, and tuning, but this flight controller can
barely auto-level a multirotor in flight. This leaves it severely underpowered compared to its
competitors ("Hobby King KK2.1 Multi-rotor LCD Flight Control Board With 6050MPU And Atmel
644PA").

The KK2 runs custom firmware and uses the LCD display for tuning without needing external
software. It can be purchased for around $30.

The KK2 Flight Controller. Photograph by Hobby King Web.

Naza-M-V2 Flight Controller $380

The Naza-M is a professional-looking flight controller with a high price tag, but not that many
features. It has a 2-axis gyro as well as a microcontroller and built-in GPS. It has hover modes and
failsafe modes, but doesn’t have as many integrated sensors as some modern, lower-cost flight
controllers. While it is aesthetically pleasing, it costs more and delivers fewer features. Note that it is
closed-source hardware, so modifying it is hard ("NAZA-M").

The Naza-M runs custom, closed-source firmware and software. It can be purchased for around
$380.

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 The Naza-M Flight Controller. Photograph by DJI Web.

ArduPilot APM Flight Controller $100

According to the creators of APM, “The APM was a tried and true champion and it was exploited
to the fullest to bring us the richness of capabilities that let us do so much, but the 8 bit APM CPU is out
of both memory and CPU performance which are necessary for future enhancement.” It uses the 8-bit
ATmega 2560 microcontroller for control ("WHICH FLIGHT CONTROLLER? APM – PX4 – PIXHAWK").

The APM was great in its day, and still can work, but no future firmware builds will fit on it, as it
is very full. Features were added until the microcontroller was completely out of memory, at which
point the designers simply built a bigger board called the Pixhawk. The APM flight controller is still
available today and still quite capable, it just will not be running new versions of the open source
ArduPilot and ArduCopter firmware and software in the future. There have been some small efforts to
shrink the existing firmware to better fit the APM, but the days of the APM are numbered, as no more of
the flight controllers will be manufactured ("APM Copter"). It can still be purchased for around $100.

ArduPilot APM Flight Controller. Photograph by ArduPilot Web.

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3DR Pixhawk Flight Controller $200
This flight controller is the next generation of the ArduPilot APM. It is a 32 bit CPU ARM Cortex
M4 running Nuttx RTOS. This CPU has a lot more memory, more and faster floating point calculations,
and many general purpose I/O ports. Instead of just an open board, it has a nice protective case with
silkscreened information, along with helpful indicator LEDs. Future ArduCopter firmware and software
work will be based on this board alone, and we expect the price to come down in the near future
("WHICH FLIGHT CONTROLLER? APM – PX4 – PIXHAWK").

The Pixhawk runs open source ArduPilot and ArduCopter firmware and software, capable of
utilizing the very biggest and latest firmware builds. It also comes with an SD card port to allow for easy
logging of inflight data. This flight controller is brand new, and is expected to start shipping in the next
week or two ("3DR Pixhawk"). It can be purchased for around $200.

Pixhawk Flight Controller. Photograph by ArduPilot Web.

Crius All-In-One V2 Pro Flight Controller $80

The Crius V2 AIO is a partial clone of the ArduPilot APM flight controller, with some updates and
improvements. Recall the fatal flaw of the APM is the microcontroller is getting very full. The Crius uses
this same microcontroller, but gets around the issue by fragmenting the firmware into functional pieces
and asking the user to configure and build their own firmware with the Arduino toolset ("General
Configuration"). This allows them to fit more of what the user wants onto the aging 8-bit
microcontroller, without the overhead of things they don’t need. This will extend the life of the ATmega

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2560-based flight controllers for some time to come, as long as you can make the choices of what you
really need in your firmware and have the capability to build and load it ("Crius AIOP Manual MWC").

The Crius V2 AIO is compatible with MegaPirateNG firmware and software, which is a fork of the
open source ArduPilot APM firmware and software. MegaPirateNG continues to update to the latest
firmware and software when APM releases something, but doing it in their functional-fragment method
to keep overall firmware size to a minimum.

Having done more research and knowing what we know now, this is the flight controller board
the author would have chosen instead of the MegaPirate/MultiWii V2 that was actually purchased. This
board has the best feature to price ratio of the flight controllers we researched found, with the most
flexibility for adding on, as well as actual documentation available. It can be purchased for around $80
("MegaPirateNG Documentation").

Crius AIO V2 Pro Flight Controller. Photograph by Gaza07.

Black Vortex Flight Controller $220

The Black Vortex is a near-clone of the ArduPilot APM with the major difference being it has an
integrated, onboard GPS module. It also has explicit connectors for XBee radios. Other than that, it is
essentially an off-brand APM that costs more ("BLACK VORTEX FLIGHT CONTROLLER BOARD FOR RC
MODELS").

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 The Black Vortex is also compatible with MegaPirateNG firmware and software, which again, is
an APM fork. It can be purchased for around $220.

Black Vortex Flight Controller. Photograph by CSG Shop Web.

MegaPirate/MultiWii V2 AIO Flight Controller (HK V2) $50

This board is also known as HK V2, since Hobby King is the only supplier for the board. It is a
clone of the Crius V1.1, which was a clone of the ArduPilot APM. The same basic components are on the
Crius and the HK V2. While it is closely related to the Crius, it still is different enough to merit
documentation of its own. Instead, the board’s creators point to the Crius V1.1 documentation. This
really is insufficient for inexperienced users. There are silkscreened names on the board that are
somewhat similar to the Crius, and some traces on the board one can follow, and from this one can
derive which each part is and correlate with the Crius V1.1 documentation, but it is more difficult than it
needs to be ("MegaPirate/MultiWii V2 AIO Flight Controller").

As with all APM clones, the HK V2 is compatible with MegaPirateNG firmware and software,
which again, is an APM fork. The HK V2 can also run a completely separate firmware/software baseline
called MultiWii. The author selected MegaPirateNG as the firmware of choice moving forward, as it is
better developed and more commonly used. The HK V2 can be purchased for around $50
("MegaPirate/ArduCopter Setup").

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MegaPirate/MultiWii V2 AIO Flight Controller. Photograph by Hobby King Web.

MultiWii Pro Flight Controller $65

The MultiWii Pro is another ATmega 2560 flight controller, but it is not a clone of the Crius. It
has very similar features, plus comes with an integrated GPS module, but has an elongated board to
allow easier wiring and connecting of peripherals. It is not compatible with MegaPirateNG firmware and
software. The firmware and software for the MultiWii board are called “MultiWii”. It was originally
written to control a Nintendo Wii controller, but then was repurposed to control a multirotor, as both
have similar attitude and motion sensors onboard. ("MultiWii") It can be purchased for around $65
("MultiWii PRO Flight Controller w/MTK GPS Module").

MultiWii Pro Flight Controller. Photograph by Hobby King Web.

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Flyduino AutoQuad 6 Flight Controller $490
The Flyduino AutoQuad 6 is the next generation MultiWii Pro, refactored to fit common stack
standoffs, and updated with a new CPU, a 32-bit Cortex M4 CPU. It has built-in GPS, micro SD card, and
2.4 GHz radio receiver, as well as EMI hardening. It is very full-featured and nice, but it is expensive
("Flyduino Mega , a MultiWii/Ardupirates/Aeroquad based aerial video platform FC").

The AutoQuad 6 is open source firmware and software but closed source hardware. It can run
both the MegaPirateNG firmware and the MultiWii firmware. It can be purchased for around $490
("Autoquad 6 Flight Controller").

Flyduino AutoQuad 6 Flight Controller. Photograph by Goofy23.

MegaPirate X $140
Contrary to the name, the MegaPirate X is not compatible with MegaPirateNG firmware and
software. It uses custom firmware and software only available via DropBox. The datasheet was also only
available from DropBox. This, along with other factors, spooked the author a bit and additional research
on this device was halted. It looks as if someone is trying to make money with an inferior board off
people who think that “MegaPirateNG” is a specific piece of hardware, rather than the firmware and
software that it actually is. All the other flight controllers that are compatible with MegaPirateNG make
it clear that “MegaPirateNG” is the name of the firmware and software port, not the product they are
selling. The MegaPirate X does use a 32-bit Cortex M4 CPU, so we assume it is a very rough first cut at
cloning the pre-release Pixhawk test boards. This flight controller looks a bit hard to use, and indeed, the

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website says “Please read the manual thoroughly before using this complicated device!” ("Megapirate
X"). This one is a bit of a mystery that will not be investigating further at this time.

MegaPirateX Flight Controller. Photograph by MegaPirateX Web.

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Flight Controller Pedigree
The figure below shows families of multirotor flight controllers on the horizontal axis and time
on the vertical axis. Hardware baselines are represented by arrows. The length of the arrows indicates
approximately how far from the source hardware it is. As an example, the Black Vortex is further from
the ArduPilot APM base than the Crius Pro V1 is. The figure also indicates firmware and software family
baselines with colored backgrounds. Flight controllers sharing a colored background run the same
baseline firmware and software. Note that several run multiple baselines.

Major Product Lines

ArduPilot KK
APM MultiWii Pro

Naza
Crius Pro V1 Black Vortex KK Custom
ArduCopter APM Firmware
Firmware and Software
Naza Custom
Firmware
Time

Crius Pro KK2

Pre Pixhawk V1.1 Multi Wii Firmware
HK V2
Interim Test Custom and Software
Board FW & SW Naza M

MegaPirate X MegaPirateNG
Crius Pro V2 Flyduino
Firmware
AutoQuad 6 Arrows represent hardware inheritance
and Software

3DR Pixhawk FW Colored background represents

SW firmware and software compatibility

While it has not been considered in this study, many of the flight controllers covered above also
function for fixed wing aircraft, usually by changing the firmware running on the board to a similar but
slightly different firmware. For example, the ArduPilot APM can run the ArduCopter firmware, which is
specifically for helicopter sUAVs, or it can run ArduPlane, which is a very closely related firmware from
the same source, intended for fixed-wing vehicles. This will not be covered further in this study, but
could be an important factor in flight controller choice in the future.

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MultiWii & MegaPirate V2 AIO Flight Controller Architecture
The MultiWii & MegaPirate V2 AIO Flight Controller is informally known as the “HK V2”, since it
comes from Hobby King, and is the second revision of the board. The documentation for the HK V2 is
sadly lacking. The author was unable to find a data sheet or user manual for this flight controller. Had
this been known prior to purchasing, a different board would have been selected. Over three weeks of
searching revealed an acceptable alternative. While there is no documentation for this board, the HK V2
was designed to be a lower-cost only-cosmetically-different version of the Crius V1.1 AIO board. With
that knowledge in hand, one can utilize the user manual for the Crius V1.1, relying on the internet and
hobbyist forums to fill in the gaps.

Hardware-wise, the HK V2 has almost everything the Crius has, the only exception being the HK
V2 does not have automatic battery level checking. As one can see from the image below, the HK V2
follows the same stack standoff as conventional multirotor boards. Note the labeled input and output
pins and connectors. There are enough I/O pins that one must have substantial knowledge to be
successful with this board.

HK V2 Flight Controller Board. Photograph by Hobby King Web.

In the photograph below, a GPS test is being run. The HK V2 is listening to the GPS and
transmitting the results back to a PC base station over the RF link. There are no motors attached in this
picture. If there were, the top left of the main board would be populated with many more wires.

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Testing the HK V2. Photograph by Hobby King Web.

The HK V2 is controlled by an Atmel ATmega 2560 microcontroller, which is an 8-bit

microcontroller running at up to 16 MHz with a Harvard architecture, which means it is a RISC system.
Data and instructions are stored in separate memories (“ATmega 2560”).

According to the datasheet, “Instructions in the program memory are executed with a single
level pipelining. While one instruction is being executed, the next instruction is pre-fetched from the
program memory” and most instructions on this microcontroller take one or two cycles ("ATmega 2560,
12").

The ATmega 2560 microcontroller is programmable via JTAG or USB with the FTDI USB-to-serial
chip built into the flight controller board. The microcontroller has four 8-bit PWM channels and 12 16-bit
PWM channels broken out into I/O headers on the board. It also has both I2C and SPI available. The I2C
interface is broken out on the flight controller board and normally used for external GPS input. The
other option for GPS is the serial UART, which is commonly used as well. The microcontroller uses 500
microamps at 1.8 volts when awake, and .1 microamp at 1.8 volts when asleep. It is a highly capable
little microcontroller. It has 32 8-bit general purpose registers, and will multiply in two cycles. It has 4KB
EEPROM, 8KB SRAM, and 256KB internal flash for storing the firmware. It has 16 10-bit ADC inputs, and
four 2-wire serial UARTs. Interrupts can be set to trigger on I/O pin voltage level changes. Not all of
these pins are broken out to I/O pins, but they could be if needed (“ATmega 2560" for the entire
paragraph).

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 The flight controller has a gyro and accelerometer sensor on a single chip. There is a 3-axis
magnetometer which allows the flight controller to know how it is oriented in the earth’s magnetic field
(e.g. which way is north) It also has a barometric altimeter with a resolution of around 10 cm height
difference, as long as the pressure hasn’t changed since launching the multirotor. It has built in receiver
inputs and outputs, which take command signals received via RF and translate that into rotor control. It
does not have built in Lithium Polymer (LiPo) monitoring, which is a voltage divider connected to an ADC
to help monitor battery levels. The Crius V1.1 has this feature.

The feature list below comes straight from the Hobby King website ("MegaPirate/Multi Wii V2 AIO
Flight Controller”):

 Supported MegaPirateNG and MultiWii firmware

 Up to 8-axis motor output
 8 input channels for standard receiver
 4 serial ports for debug/Bluetooth Module/OSD/GPS/telemetry
 2 servos output for PITCH and ROLL gimbal system
 1 servo output to trigger a camera button
 6 Analog output for extend device
 A I2C port for extend sensor or device
 Separate 3.3V and 5V LDO voltage regulator
 ATMega 2560 Microcontroller
 MPU6050 6 axis gyro/accel with Motion Processing Unit
 HMC5883L 3-axis digital magnetometer
 MS5611-01BA01 high precision altimeter
 FT232RQ USB-UART chip and Micro USB receptacle
 On board logic level converter

The on-board six-axis combination gyroscope and accelerometer, part number MPU6050, helps the
multirotor know its orientation in pitch, roll, and yaw. It enables the vehicle to sense when it is not level
and trigger changes to flight controls to level out. The gyroscope and accelerometer ADCs are 16 bits,
and their full-scale values are user programmable, which means one can customize the ADCs to read
values appropriate to various multirotor setups. The chip runs at around 20 MHz, which means that it
can sleep between samples, conserving power while in the air. It runs at 2.16 volts with 100 microamps
current draw ("MPU-6000 and MPU-6050 Product Specification").

The on-board magnetometer, part number HMC5883L, measures the direction of the earth’s
magnetic field, adding yet another input to the multirotor’s state vector for attitude. The ADC is 12 bits,
and full-scale values are user programmable for different setups. It runs at 1.8 volts, with 1 microamp
current draw ("3-Axis Digital Compass IC").

The onboard altimeter’s (part number MS5611-01BA01) datasheet claims that it is sensitive up to 10
centimeters, but online reviews claim the sensitivity is closer to two meters instead of 10 centimeters. It
uses a linear pressure sensor and a 24 bit ADC at 1.8 volts, and 20 MHz sampling ("MS5611-01BA01
PRESSURE SENSOR").

While GPS is used to find the actual latitude and longitude location of the unit, there is a lot more to
it than just location. The gyro/accelerometer integrated with the magnetometer provide a nine-axis

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(X,Y,Z for each of gyro, acceleration, and magnetics) motion sensor at up to 1MHz running at 2.375 volts.
This enables location and attitude awareness, which is critical to the safe operation of the multirotor.

The onboard FTDI chip, part number FT232RQ, converts USB to UART automatically, with
appropriate level shifting. This enables programming the firmware for the microcontroller directly from
a laptop with a USB cable, which is quite easy to do ("Future Technology Devices International Ltd.
FT232R USB UART IC").

Simplified Block Diagram

A simplified block diagram of the flight controller with its inputs and outputs is shown in the
figure below. Red indicates RF communications, yellow indicates general Input/Output pins that can be
used for nearly any purpose one can dream up, green indicates power and inputs to drive the motors at
the variable speeds required, and blue indicates control logic.

GPS UART Altimeter Receiver

Accelerometer Sensors
and Gyros Electronic
Speed
Controllers Comms

Magnetometer
Microcontroller Motors
& Power
Power
FTDI GPIO

Control

Trigger PWM Digital

I2C
Control GPIO GPIO

While this simplified diagram neglects many details, it conveys the general idea of how things
are interconnected on a typical flight controller board.

Bare Minimum Starting Point

To get started with multirotors, the following is the bare minimum:

1) Air frame with motors and propellers

2) Flight Controller
3) Transmitter and Receiver for manual control
4) Battery and charger

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 These are the bare minimum items to get up and flying. We suggest choosing a flight controller that
is compatible with ArduPilot APM or a derivative such as MegaPirateNG, as they are both open source
software and firmware. Many of the flight control boards that run these two hardware platforms are
open source hardware.

When the parts are acquired, the general steps to begin are listed below. Note that a lot of details
are intentionally left out, as these are only high-level steps.

1) Load firmware to the flight controller

2) Load tuning software to a PC
3) Program transmitter and receiver pair with PC software
4) Tune the multirotor so motors are controlled evenly by similar amounts of controller motion
5) Test fly at very low altitudes (inches, not feet) to ensure the multirotor balances appropriately

Once the multirotor is in the air and responding appropriately to commanded inputs, the next items
to integrate are:

1) GPS for location data

2) Separate RF radio for data and control
3) Computer aided control via PC and RF link (potentially sending GPS waypoints)
4) Video with data link back to the base station
5) “Return to Base” functionality

From there, the sky is no longer the limit.

Crashes will be a fact of life until one has learned to fly well. As a mitigation strategy, one can
actually purchase multirotors strapped inside small wire cages with bungee cords. Small wrecks in this
configuration are not catastrophic and one can continue learning without spending a fortune.

Jargon
The following acronyms are commonly used when discussing multirotors.

AIO All In One

APM ArduPilot Mega
ARF Almost Ready to Fly
AV Audio/Visual
BEC Battery Eliminator Circuit
CPU Central Processing Unit
DIY Do It Yourself
EMI Electro-Magnetic Interference
ESC Electronic Speed Controller
IFF Identify Friend or Foe
IMU Inertial Measurement Unit sensor
INU Inertial Navigation Unit
LiPo Lithium Polymer Battery
MP Mission Planning
OSD On-Screen Display
PID Proportion Integration and Differentiation
PWM Pulse Width Modulation

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RC Radio Control
RF Radio Frequency
RTB Return To Base
RTF Ready To Fly
RTL Return To Launch place
SD Secure Digital
sUAV small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
VFR Visual Flight Range
VTOL Vertical Take Off and Land

Future Development and Predictions

The future of the low cost flight controller will likely involve integration of more onboard
sensors natively into the flight controller, standardization on an actual CPU instead of a microcontroller,
and native integration of RF communications on board. Costs will come down as parts are standardized
and mass-produced while quality will go up as production quantities grow. Cooperative machine theory
will grow. Power technology will evolve, as will legal regulations.

Sensors
There will very likely be more sensors integrated onto these boards. Right now GPS is an add-on
for many flight control boards. This is a big one that would be very nice to just be integrated with the
flight controller, even if it isn’t onboard for EMI reasons. Sonic range finders in at least the six cardinal
flight directions will also very likely be integrated natively (or at least specifically pinned-out on the
board). Explicit camera pins that take signals from the attached camera and send them back to the base
station over the radio will also likely be introduced, as well as standard onboard video encoding. Flash
memory data logging will be very useful to have natively on the flight controller and is a likely next step.
Microphones will become standard. Onboard temperature and humidity gauges will likely become the
norm, as well as battery monitoring. Information from all these sensors will be wrapped up and logged
or transmitted back to the base station natively. This will all come in one flight controller package,
allowing much more flexibility for pilots. The flash memory that is used to log flight data and pictures
could also hold files such as new software or firmware updates for the board. Multirotors will likely work
cooperatively and quasi-intelligently with other multirotors, and will need a short-distance radio for
communication. This could be Bluetooth embedded onto the flight control board, or some other RF
technology.

Though a little scary, one could easily imagine a world where multirotors have headlights, digital
displays (LCD-variety at first), fingerprint sensors, biometric eye scanners, infrared cameras, toxin
detectors, loudspeakers, tasers, or other weapons. While we will not focus on the applicability of some
of these items, there are myriad uses for multirotor sensors outside this scary future. Flight controllers
are one of the big things that will make this happen. The technology is going to grow by leaps and
bounds.

Processors
Most flight controllers will move to a 32-bit ARM-based processor, as it is capable of low power
operation, vast memory access, and involved computation. This will enable more complex control and
flight planning on board, without external supervision.

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External RF Communication
There are several common flavors of RF that could be implemented on board: WIFI, GSM,
4GLTE, or 433 MHz, 900 MHz, or 2400 MHz standard radios. Medium-range communication technology
would be helpful to future multirotor enthusiasts. Cellular communication is particularly interesting in
that the multirotor and the control could theoretically be very far away from each other while still
communicating, sharing video feeds. This does have the drawback of requiring a data plan

Costs
Costs will come down and parts will become more standardized. At the moment, one can visit
over 30 websites and find 30 different types of multirotor airframes alone. We suggest much like the
cars on the road today, airframes will begin to look similar in terms of dimensions, capabilities, and
structure. The cosmetics will be different, but underneath the frames will become closer together.

Academics and Theory

The cooperative machines, machine learning, and automated control fields will all see a big
increase in interest as a result of multirotor proliferation. There will be fleets of multirotors working
together to accomplish tasks. This requires immense self-awareness through sensors and software. The
field of cooperative fleet management is going to see a big increase. Cooperation among multirotors is
going to require more CPU horsepower on each multirotor going forward, which will drive flight
controller capability increase.

Power
Battery technology will also get a boost from this, as current battery technology is insufficient
for lengthy flights. Researchers will actively seek to develop better battery technology for small
unmanned aerial vehicles.

Regulations
In the United States, one cannot legally fly an sUAV as a service for money at this time, but “the
FAA expects to nail down the initial process to issue ‘operator certificates’ for companies flying larger
drones for profit by 2014” (Gallagher).

Laws will be made to allow sUAVs to operate in the national airspace. Regulations will occur.
Licensing will very likely occur. Radar will be implemented to track all these things, and IFF systems will
likely be required. Ground location stations to assist GPS will likely be set up. Right now, it is the wild
west of a brave new world. We expect within ten years, regulations will be in place similar to automobile
regulations. We even imagine the concept of 3D volumes set up as air traffic lanes sUAVs.

More integrated sensors, more CPU horsepower, more standardization, better batteries, lower
cost, and FAA approval will all serve to make the multirotor more autonomous, available, and easier for
the novice pilot to control.

Page 20 of 24
Future Work and Conclusion
Future Work

It would be very useful to compare the MultiWii and MegaPirateNG firmware on the same multirotor
platform and document the results. This would provide that head-to-head comparison many people on
internet forums keep asking for.

One could spend quite a bit of time analyzing in detail the various firmware/software combinations for
each of the modern flight controllers. We only brushed the surface of the firmware/software analysis.

We would like to have been able to integrate the multirotor parts purchased for this effort and actually
fly the resulting multirotor, but this proved infeasible within the allotted timeframe.

Conclusion

Multirotors are moving to the forefront, as the technology, use cases, public awareness, and
price combine to make them economical and acceptable. Expect to see many of them in daily use
within the next five years. The flight control boards that enable them will only become more capable,
robust, safe, and standardized from here. There are great changes coming very soon for the multirotor
field, and the application of this technology will change the world in ways yet to be imagined.

Page 21 of 24
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Page 23 of 24
NAZA-M. N.d. Photograph. DJI Web. 7 Dec 2013. <http://www.dji.com/feature/naza-m-features/>.

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Appendix
Please see the PowerPoint Slides in the file Multirotor Control.pptx.

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