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21 — Drones & UAVs

Everything needed to design, build, program, fly, and operate composable drones in any format — multirotor, fixed-wing, VTOL, FPV racing, cargo/delivery, agricultural, and swarm configurations. From RTOS kernel through flight control, communication, autonomy, mapping, and regulatory compliance.

Build Order

RTOS (NuttX/ChibiOS) → Flight Controller Firmware (ArduPilot/PX4/Betaflight)
→ ESC Firmware (AM32/Bluejay/BLHeli_S) → Hardware (Pixhawk/custom PCB)
→ RC Link (ExpressLRS/EdgeTX) → FPV Video (OpenHD/WFB-NG)
→ Ground Control (QGroundControl/MissionPlanner)
→ MAVLink Protocol → SDK (MAVSDK/DroneKit)
→ Simulation (Gazebo/AirSim/JSBSim) → Autonomy (SLAM/Planning/Avoidance)
→ Mapping (OpenDroneMap) → Swarm → Compliance (Remote ID/UTM)

Quick Reference: Stack by Drone Type

Type Flight Controller RC Link Video GCS Extras
Multirotor (autonomous) ArduPilot/PX4 ExpressLRS OpenHD QGroundControl MAVSDK, SLAM
Multirotor (FPV) Betaflight ExpressLRS OpenHD/WFB-NG Betaflight Configurator PID Analyzer
Fixed-wing ArduPilot (ArduPlane)/PX4 ExpressLRS OpenHD MissionPlanner JSBSim sim
VTOL ArduPilot/PX4/dRehmFlight ExpressLRS OpenHD QGroundControl —
FPV Racing Betaflight ExpressLRS OpenHD Betaflight Configurator Blackbox logs
Helicopter Rotorflight ExpressLRS — Rotorflight Configurator —
Cargo/Delivery ArduPilot/PX4 ExpressLRS OpenHD QGroundControl Remote ID, UTM
Agricultural ArduPilot/PX4 ExpressLRS — MissionPlanner OpenDroneMap, NDVI
Swarm PX4/Crazyflie MAVLink — QGroundControl Crazyswarm2, EGO-Planner
Nano/Micro Crazyflie/ESP-Drone WiFi ESP32-CAM — Crazyswarm2

Flight Controller Firmware

ArduPilot → ardupilot (fork of ardupilot/ardupilot)

The most complete open-source autopilot. Supports copters, planes, helicopters, rovers, boats, and submarines. Runs on ChibiOS RTOS. 12k+ stars.

  • Build: ./waf configure --board=Pixhawk6X && ./waf copter (or plane, rover, etc.)
  • Usage: Flash to Pixhawk, configure via MissionPlanner or QGroundControl
  • Vehicles: ArduCopter (multirotor), ArduPlane (fixed-wing), ArduSub, ArduRover
  • Docs: https://ardupilot.org/dev/

PX4 Autopilot → PX4-Autopilot (fork of PX4/PX4-Autopilot)

Professional-grade autopilot for multirotors, fixed-wing, VTOL, rovers. Runs on NuttX RTOS. Dronecode Foundation.

  • Build: make px4_fmu-v6x_default (target depends on hardware)
  • Usage: Flash via QGroundControl, configure parameters
  • Docs: https://docs.px4.io/

Betaflight → betaflight (fork of betaflight/betaflight)

Leading FPV/racing flight controller firmware. STM32 F4/F7/H7 targets. Huge community.

  • Build: make TARGET (e.g., make STM32F405)
  • Usage: Flash via Betaflight Configurator, tune PIDs, set rates
  • Docs: https://betaflight.com/docs

iNav → inav (fork of iNavFlight/inav)

Navigation-focused firmware with GPS waypoints, return-to-home, and mission planning. Cleanflight lineage.

Paparazzi UAV → paparazzi (fork of paparazzi/paparazzi)

Academic-oriented free autopilot with integrated hardware+software for fixed-wing and rotorcraft. GPLv2.

  • Build: make && make install
  • Usage: Full IDE with flight plan editor, ground control, and data link
  • Docs: https://paparazziuav.org/

Rotorflight → rotorflight-firmware (fork of rotorflight/rotorflight-firmware)

Flight controller firmware specifically for single-rotor RC helicopters. Based on Betaflight 4.3.

  • Build: Similar to Betaflight build process
  • Usage: Flash via Rotorflight Configurator

dRehmFlight → dRehmFlight (fork of nickrehm/dRehmFlight)

Teensy 4.0/Arduino VTOL flight controller. Under $30 hardware. Educational focus.

  • Build: Arduino IDE or PlatformIO
  • Usage: Upload to Teensy 4.0, wire sensors/servos/ESCs
  • Great for: Learning flight control theory, experimental VTOL designs

Crazyflie Firmware → crazyflie-firmware (fork of bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware)

Firmware for Crazyflie nano quadcopter and Crazyflie Bolt. FreeRTOS-based, C.

  • Build: make (requires ARM GCC toolchain)
  • Usage: Flash via cfclient, control via Python cflib
  • Great for: Swarm research, indoor navigation, education

ESP-Drone → esp-drone (fork of espressif/esp-drone)

Mini drone firmware for ESP32 and ESP32-S series SoCs by Espressif.

  • Build: ESP-IDF framework
  • Usage: WiFi-controlled mini drone, Crazyflie-compatible protocol

madflight → madflight (fork of qqqlab/madflight)

Flight controller toolbox for ESP32-S3/ESP32/RP2350/RP2040/STM32. Under $10 builds.

  • Build: Arduino IDE or PlatformIO
  • Usage: Configurable FC on cheap hardware

ESP-FC → esp-fc (fork of rtlopez/esp-fc)

Betaflight-compatible firmware for ESP32. Configurable via Betaflight Configurator.

  • Build: PlatformIO
  • Usage: Flash to ESP32, configure via standard Betaflight Configurator

Legacy/Research Firmware

  • EmuFlight → EmuFlight (fork of emuflight/EmuFlight) — Betaflight fork with innovative filtering
  • dRonin → dRonin (fork of d-ronin/dRonin) — OpenPilot/Tau Labs family, acro + research
  • Cleanflight → cleanflight (fork of cleanflight/cleanflight) — Historical, Betaflight/iNav forked from this
  • Liberty-X → Liberty-X (fork of F33RNI/Liberty-X) — STM32 multicopter for camera/delivery drones
  • HadesFCS → HadesFCS (fork of pms67/HadesFCS) — Complete FC system from scratch, KiCad hardware

ESC Firmware & Hardware

AM32 → AM32 (fork of am32-firmware/AM32)

Open-source ESC firmware for ARM-based (STM32) motor controllers. BLHeli_32 alternative.

Bluejay → bluejay (fork of mathiasvr/bluejay)

Digital ESC firmware for brushless motors (Busy Bee MCUs). BLHeli_S successor.

  • Build: SDCC compiler
  • Usage: Flash via ESC Configurator, replaces stock BLHeli_S firmware

BLHeli_S → BLHeli_S (fork of betaflight/BLHeli_S)

Revived BLHeli_S open source brushless ESC firmware. Also covers original BLHeli (same fork network).

  • Usage: Flash via BLHeliSuite or ESC Configurator
  • Note: Fork network includes original bitdump/BLHeli

Betaflight ESC → betaflight-esc (fork of betaflight/betaflight-esc)

Betaflight's own open source ESC firmware project.

  • Build: ARM GCC toolchain

Ground Control Stations

QGroundControl → qgroundcontrol (fork of mavlink/qgroundcontrol)

Cross-platform GCS for MAVLink drones. Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, Windows. Dronecode project.

Mission Planner → MissionPlanner (fork of ArduPilot/MissionPlanner)

Full-featured GCS for ArduPilot. C#/.NET. Windows primary, Linux/Mac via Mono.

MAVProxy → MAVProxy (fork of ArduPilot/MAVProxy)

Command-line GCS and MAVLink proxy. Extensible via Python modules. GPLv3.

  • Install: pip install MAVProxy
  • Usage: mavproxy.py --master=/dev/ttyUSB0 --baudrate=115200
  • Great for: Headless operation, scripting, forwarding telemetry

APM Planner 2 → apm_planner (fork of ArduPilot/apm_planner)

Cross-platform GCS in C++/Qt for APM-based autopilots.

  • Build: qmake && make

Communication Protocols & SDKs

MAVLink → mavlink (fork of mavlink/mavlink)

The universal drone communication protocol. Lightweight binary messaging for drones.

MAVSDK → MAVSDK (fork of mavlink/MAVSDK)

High-level MAVLink API library (C++, with Python/Swift/Java/JS wrappers). gRPC architecture.

MAVSDK-Python → MAVSDK-Python (fork of mavlink/MAVSDK-Python)

Python client for MAVSDK. High-level async drone control via MAVLink.

  • Install: pip install mavsdk
  • Usage: from mavsdk import System; drone = System(); await drone.connect()

MAVROS → mavros (fork of mavlink/mavros)

MAVLink-to-ROS bridge. Standard way to connect PX4/ArduPilot to ROS/ROS2.

DroneKit-Python → dronekit-python (fork of dronekit/dronekit-python)

Python library for MAVLink drone communication. Simple high-level API.

  • Install: pip install dronekit
  • Usage: from dronekit import connect; vehicle = connect('/dev/ttyUSB0')

pymavlink → pymavlink (fork of ArduPilot/pymavlink)

Low-level Python MAVLink message processing library. Used by MAVProxy, DroneKit, etc.

  • Install: pip install pymavlink

Micro-XRCE-DDS → Micro-XRCE-DDS-Agent (fork of eProsima/Micro-XRCE-DDS-Agent)

DDS middleware agent for PX4-to-ROS2 bridge. uORB topics become ROS2 topics.

  • Build: cmake -B build && cmake --build build

RC Link & Transmitter Firmware

ExpressLRS → ExpressLRS (fork of ExpressLRS/ExpressLRS)

High-performance open source RC link. ESP32/SX127x/SX1280 LoRa. 900MHz + 2.4GHz. Up to 1000Hz packet rate.

  • Build: PlatformIO
  • Usage: Flash TX and RX modules, bind, fly
  • Docs: https://www.expresslrs.org/
  • Why: Lowest latency, longest range, most hackable RC link available

EdgeTX → edgetx (fork of EdgeTX/edgetx)

Cutting-edge open source firmware for RC radio transmitters. Fork of OpenTX.

  • Build: CMake + ARM toolchain
  • Usage: Flash to supported radios (RadioMaster, Jumper, FrSky, etc.)
  • Docs: https://edgetx.org/

OpenTX → opentx (fork of opentx/opentx)

Original open source RC transmitter firmware. Legacy — EdgeTX is the active successor.

FPV Video Systems

OpenHD → OpenHD (fork of OpenHD/OpenHD)

Open source digital FPV ecosystem. Long-range WiFi broadcast. 2.4/5.8/6GHz. 50km+ range tested.

  • Build: Custom Linux image for Raspberry Pi / Radxa
  • Usage: Air unit (Pi + camera) + ground unit (Pi + display)
  • Docs: https://openhdfpv.org/

WFB-NG → wfb-ng (fork of svpcom/wfb-ng)

WifiBroadcast Next Generation. Long-range packet radio via raw WiFi monitor mode. FEC error correction.

  • Build: make (requires patched WiFi drivers)
  • Usage: Provides low-latency video + telemetry transport layer
  • Note: Foundation technology that OpenHD builds upon

RubyFPV → RubyFPV (fork of RubyFPV/RubyFPV)

Open source digital FPV system. Multi-band redundant links. Relay node support.

  • Build: Raspberry Pi image
  • Usage: Air + ground Pi units

MSP-OSD → msp-osd (fork of fpv-wtf/msp-osd)

MSP DisplayPort OSD renderer for DJI FPV systems.

Gyroflow → gyroflow (fork of gyroflow/gyroflow)

Video stabilization using gyroscope data from camera or Blackbox flight logs. Rust-based.

  • Build: cargo build --release
  • Usage: Import video + gyro data → stabilize → export
  • Supports: GoPro, Insta360, Sony, DJI, Betaflight Blackbox
  • Docs: https://gyroflow.xyz/

Simulation

Gazebo → gz-sim (already existed, private)

New-generation Gazebo. Full physics simulation with PX4/ArduPilot SITL integration.

  • Build: cmake -B build && cmake --build build
  • Usage: Launch with PX4 SITL models for hardware-in-the-loop testing
  • Docs: https://gazebosim.org/

PX4 Gazebo Models → PX4-SITL_gazebo-classic (fork of PX4/PX4-SITL_gazebo-classic)

PX4 plugins, vehicle models, and worlds for Gazebo Classic (SITL & HITL).

  • Usage: Launch alongside PX4 SITL for full simulation

AirSim → AirSim (fork of microsoft/AirSim)

Microsoft's high-fidelity simulator on Unreal Engine for drones and cars. Archived — see ProjectAirSim.

  • Build: Requires Unreal Engine 4 + Visual Studio
  • Note: No longer maintained, but code is complete and functional

ProjectAirSim → ProjectAirSim (fork of iamaisim/ProjectAirSim)

AirSim successor by former Microsoft engineers. UE5 based. Modern simulation platform.

  • Build: Unreal Engine 5 + CMake

JSBSim → jsbsim (fork of JSBSim-Team/jsbsim)

Flight dynamics model library in C++. Fixed-wing, rockets, spacecraft. Used by ArduPilot SITL.

Gym-PyBullet-Drones → gym-pybullet-drones (fork of utiasDSL/gym-pybullet-drones)

PyBullet Gymnasium environments for single/multi-agent reinforcement learning of quadcopter control.

  • Install: pip install gym-pybullet-drones
  • Usage: Train RL agents on drone tasks (hover, waypoint, formation)

Hardware Design

Pixhawk Hardware → Hardware (fork of pixhawk/Hardware)

Official Pixhawk PX4 hardware designs (FMUv1-v5 schematics, PCB layouts). CC BY-SA 3.0.

  • Contents: KiCad/Eagle schematics, BOM, mechanical drawings
  • Use case: Manufacture your own Pixhawk flight controller

Pixhawk Standards → Pixhawk-Standards (fork of pixhawk/Pixhawk-Standards)

Pixhawk open standards for mechanical/electrical specs and interoperability guidelines.

Frame Designs

  • Source One → source_one (fork of tbs-trappy/source_one) — Industry-standard open FPV frame. DXF/STEP files.
  • Source Two → source_two (fork of ps915/source_two) — Open FPV racing frame. Community design.

Gimbal Controller

  • STorM32 BGC → storm32bgc (fork of olliw42/storm32bgc) — 3-axis brushless gimbal controller (STM32). MAVLink compatible.

Computer Vision & Autonomy

Visual SLAM

ORB-SLAM3 → ORB_SLAM3 (fork of UZ-SLAMLab/ORB_SLAM3)

Visual, Visual-Inertial, and Multi-Map SLAM. Monocular/stereo/RGB-D. Pin-hole + fisheye cameras.

  • Build: cmake -B build && cmake --build build (requires OpenCV, Eigen3, Pangolin)
  • Usage: ./mono_tum Vocabulary/ORBvoc.txt TUM1.yaml path_to_sequence

ORB-SLAM2 → ORB_SLAM2 (fork of raulmur/ORB_SLAM2)

Real-time SLAM for monocular, stereo, and RGB-D cameras with loop detection. Reference implementation.

VINS-Fusion → VINS-Fusion (fork of HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/VINS-Fusion)

Optimization-based multi-sensor state estimator. Mono+IMU, stereo+IMU. GPS fusion support.

  • Build: catkin build (ROS workspace)
  • Usage: Real-time visual-inertial odometry for GPS-denied environments

VINS-Mono → VINS-Mono (fork of HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/VINS-Mono)

Real-time monocular visual-inertial SLAM. Sliding window optimization.

OpenVINS → open_vins (fork of rpng/open_vins)

Visual-inertial navigation research platform. Winner of IROS 2019 VIO competition.

  • Build: colcon build (ROS2) or catkin build (ROS1)

RTAB-Map → rtabmap (fork of introlab/rtabmap)

Real-Time Appearance-Based Mapping. RGB-D/stereo/LiDAR graph-based SLAM.

Object Detection

  • Ultralytics (YOLO) → ultralytics (already existed, private) — YOLOv8/v11 for drone-mounted object detection
  • OpenCV → opencv (fork of opencv/opencv) — Foundation computer vision library

Obstacle Avoidance

  • PX4-Avoidance → PX4-Avoidance (fork of PX4/PX4-Avoidance) — ROS nodes for depth sensor fusion, VFH+* planner

Path Planning & Trajectory

Fast-Planner → Fast-Planner (fork of HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/Fast-Planner)

Robust and efficient trajectory planner for quadrotors in unknown environments. GPLv3.

  • Build: catkin build (ROS workspace)
  • Usage: Generates kinodynamically feasible trajectories with obstacle avoidance

FUEL → FUEL (fork of HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/FUEL)

Fast UAV Exploration framework. 3-8x faster than prior state-of-the-art autonomous exploration.

EGO-Planner Swarm → ego-planner-swarm (fork of ZJU-FAST-Lab/ego-planner-swarm)

Decentralized multi-robot trajectory planner. Uses only onboard resources, no central coordination.

ROS Integration

MAVROS → (see Communication Protocols section above)

MRS UAV System → mrs_uav_system (fork of ctu-mrs/mrs_uav_system)

Modular ROS framework for autonomous UAV research from Czech Technical University. Production-tested.

  • Build: catkin build (ROS workspace)
  • Contents: Control, state estimation, trajectory generation, tracking, sensor integration
  • Docs: https://ctu-mrs.github.io/

Swarm & Multi-Drone

Crazyswarm2 → crazyswarm2 (fork of IMRCLab/crazyswarm2)

ROS2 stack for large Crazyflie swarms. Polynomial trajectories, collision avoidance.

ACL Swarm → aclswarm (fork of mit-acl/aclswarm)

MIT ACL distributed formation flying using multirotors. Peer-to-peer communication.

  • Build: catkin build (ROS workspace)

MAVSDK Drone Show → mavsdk_drone_show (fork of alireza787b/mavsdk_drone_show)

Unified platform for PX4-based drone shows and intelligent swarm missions.

  • Usage: Choreograph synchronized drone light shows

Mapping & Photogrammetry

OpenDroneMap → ODM (fork of OpenDroneMap/ODM)

Command-line toolkit for maps, point clouds, 3D models, DEMs from drone images.

  • Build: Docker recommended, or native ./install.sh
  • Usage: docker run -ti --rm -v /images:/datasets opendronemap/odm --project-path /datasets
  • Outputs: Orthophotos, DSMs, 3D textured meshes, point clouds
  • Docs: https://docs.opendronemap.org/

WebODM → WebODM (fork of OpenDroneMap/WebODM)

Web-based UI for ODM. Commercial-grade aerial image processing.

  • Build: docker compose up
  • Usage: Upload drone photos via browser → process → download maps

NodeODM → NodeODM (fork of OpenDroneMap/NodeODM)

Lightweight REST API to ODM processing engine. Backend for WebODM.

ClusterODM → ClusterODM (fork of OpenDroneMap/ClusterODM)

NodeODM-compatible load balancer with cloud autoscaling (AWS, DO, Hetzner).

LiDAR & Point Cloud Processing

PDAL → PDAL (fork of PDAL/PDAL)

Point Data Abstraction Library. C++ API for translating, filtering, processing point clouds.

  • Build: cmake -B build && cmake --build build
  • Usage: pdal translate input.las output.laz --writers.las.compression=true
  • Docs: https://pdal.io/

PCL → pcl (fork of PointCloudLibrary/pcl)

Point Cloud Library. Large-scale 2D/3D image and point cloud processing. C++.

Potree → potree (fork of potree/potree)

WebGL point cloud viewer for large datasets. Browser-based LiDAR visualization.

  • Usage: Convert LAS/LAZ to Potree format → serve via web browser

Regulations & Safety

Open Drone ID → opendroneid-core-c (fork of opendroneid/opendroneid-core-c)

Open Drone ID Core C Library. ASTM F3411 Remote ID via Bluetooth/WiFi broadcast.

ArduRemoteID → ArduRemoteID (fork of ArduPilot/ArduRemoteID)

MAVLink and DroneCAN OpenDroneID transmitter. Meets ASTM F3586-22 compliance.

  • Build: Arduino/PlatformIO for ESP32
  • Usage: Add-on module for ArduPilot/PX4 drones

UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management)

  • Flight Blender → flight-blender (fork of openutm/flight-blender) — Network Remote ID, flight authorization, geofence server
  • Flight Spotlight → flight-spotlight (fork of openutm/flight-spotlight) — Real-time airspace display
  • InterUSS DSS → dss (fork of interuss/dss) — Discovery and Synchronization Service. ASTM standard. Linux Foundation.

Configurators & Tuning Tools

Betaflight Configurator → betaflight-configurator (fork of betaflight/betaflight-configurator)

Cross-platform configuration app for Betaflight. PWA (Windows/Linux/Mac/Android).

  • Build: yarn install && yarn start
  • Usage: Connect FC via USB → configure PIDs, rates, modes, OSD

iNav Configurator → inav-configurator (fork of iNavFlight/inav-configurator)

GUI configuration tool for iNav firmware.

  • Build: yarn install && yarn start

Rotorflight Configurator → rotorflight-configurator (fork of rotorflight/rotorflight-configurator)

Configuration tool for Rotorflight helicopter firmware.

PID Analyzer → PID-Analyzer (fork of Plasmatree/PID-Analyzer)

Python tool that reads Blackbox logs and calculates PID step response via deconvolution.

  • Install: pip install -r requirements.txt
  • Usage: python PID-Analyzer.py LOG00042.BFL

Blackbox Log Viewer → blackbox-log-viewer (fork of betaflight/blackbox-log-viewer)

Interactive browser-based flight log viewer for Betaflight Blackbox data. Export to WebM/CSV.

UAV Log Viewer → UAVLogViewer (fork of ArduPilot/UAVLogViewer)

Online viewer for UAV log files. Cesium-based map integration.

Methodic Configurator → MethodicConfigurator (fork of ArduPilot/MethodicConfigurator)

Semi-automated ArduPilot configuration sequence. Parameter management, IMU calibration, PID tuning.

  • Install: pip install MethodicConfigurator
  • Usage: Step-by-step guided calibration and tuning workflow

Underlying RTOS

NuttX → nuttx (fork of apache/nuttx)

NuttX RTOS — used by PX4. POSIX-compliant, real-time, multi-threaded.

ChibiOS

Used by ArduPilot. Not on GitHub — archive from https://www.chibios.org/ separately.

Repos NOT on GitHub (Archive Separately)

Project Source Why You Need It
ChibiOS chibios.org RTOS used by ArduPilot
Gazebo Classic gazebosim.org (some repos on Bitbucket) Legacy simulation
Google Cartographer github.com (archived) 2D/3D SLAM (already archived)

Total drone forks: ~80 Covers: Flight control, ESC, GCS, MAVLink, RC link, FPV video, simulation, hardware, SLAM, path planning, mapping, LiDAR, swarm, Remote ID, UTM, configurators, RTOS