Slugs is an open-source
autopilot
An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...
system oriented toward inexpensive
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...
aircraft.
Low cost and wide availability enable hobbyist use in small
remotely piloted aircraft
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...
. The project started in 2009 and is being further developed and used at Autonomous Systems Lab of
University of California Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...
. Several vendors produce Slugs autopilots and accessories.
Flight test results for an improved line of sight guidance law for UAVs
/ref>
Overview
An autopilot allows a remotely piloted aircraft to be flown out of sight. All hardware and software is open-source and freely available to anyone under the MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
licensing agreement. free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
autopilots provide more flexible hardware and software. Users can modify the autopilot based on their own special requirements, such as forest fire evaluation. The free software approach from Slugs is similar to that from the paparazzi Project Paparazzi is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft.
Low cost and availability enable hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft. The project began in 2003, and is being further developed and used at É ...
, PX4 autopilot
PX4 autopilot is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft.
Low cost and availability enable hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft. The project started in 2009 and is being further developed and us ...
, ArduPilot
ArduPilot is an open source, unmanned vehicle Autopilot Software Suite, capable of controlling autonomous:
*Multirotor drones
*Fixed-wing and VTOL aircraft
*Helicopters
*Ground rovers
*Boats
* Submarines
*Antenna trackers
ArduPilot was original ...
and OpenPilot where low cost and availability enables its hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...
such as micro air vehicle
A micro air vehicle (MAV), or micro aerial vehicle, is a class of miniature UAVs that has a size restriction and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 5 centimeters. Development is driven by commercial, research, government, and mil ...
s and miniature UAV
A miniature UAV, small UAV (SUAV), or drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle small enough to be man-portable. Smallest UAVs are called micro air vehicle.
Miniature UAVs range from micro air vehicles (MAVs) that can be carried by an infantryman, t ...
s. Such frameworks are common in Open-source robotics
Open-source robotics (OSR) is where the physical artifacts of the subject are offered by the open design movement. This branch of robotics makes use of open-source hardware and free and open-source software providing blueprints, schematics, and s ...
.
Software
The open-source software suite contains everything to let airborne systems fly.
See also
* Crowdsourcing
*Micro air vehicle
A micro air vehicle (MAV), or micro aerial vehicle, is a class of miniature UAVs that has a size restriction and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 5 centimeters. Development is driven by commercial, research, government, and mil ...
References
External links
Slugs Homepage
Avionics
Aircraft instruments
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Free software
{{Component-aircraft-stub