The Difference Between a Drone Flight Controller and Flight Computer

How exactly does an autonomous drone fly? This is a very broad overview of the difference between autonomous drone flight controllers and flight computers. Of course, not all autonomous drones are alike and there are exceptions, but this video covers the basics of why flight controllers are generally kept separate from flight computers used for autonomy on small drones. If you are a hobbyist or student looking to develop your own autonomous drone, this is a great place to start. Additionally, this video may serve as a good introduction to the behind-the-scenes computations and processes occurring in an autonomous drone flight controller and flight computer. With knowledge of these important concepts, you should begin to understand how to make your own self-flying drone.

Drone autonomy is an ever-expanding subject of interest because it can allow for more useful applications of small aerial vehicles such as autonomous package delivery, search and rescue, or specialized aerial photography. Aerial robotics also serves as a great challenge to undertake for those interested in robotics, particularly visual-inertial odometry which is crucial for autonomous navigation on flying vehicles. A combination of a good flight controller, flight computer, and sensor suite including LIDAR, cameras, or a combination of both can be a great starting point for creating a drone capable of autonomous flight. Nowadays, a raspberry pi, arduino microcontroller, and basic quadcopter platform can get you up and flying with the right custom or open source software.

Again, I would like to emphasize that this video is not comprehensive, and generalizes quite a bit. I am aware that not all systems follow this same framework. This video should serve more as an informative guide for hobby and research vehicles rather than an all-inclusive handbook.

#Drones #FlightController #Autonomy

[petersalatas]

This is an amazing video that pulls together many complex concepts and organizes them into a singular, high-level overview of how the system works as a whole. I find that taking a step back and looking at the whole picture makes it easier to grasp the smaller concepts. I am putting together an RPAS course and will definitely be using a version of your flight controller and flight computer diagrams to show how all of the data works with one another to achieve stabilization while performing intelligent functions such as APAS. Thank you

[martinhusar]

Great video, I wanted to build autonomous drone using only Raspberry Pi and now, I know it is better to have separate microcontroller for stabilisation.

[georgesmith]

Thank you for this awesome video. Now that I understand the complexities I believe it will be even more challenging for me to implement an autonomous flight for a drone that is supposed to fly near an uninhabited coastline. This implies multiple targets and training the drone for each even though I do not have an exact list of all the possible targets the drone can encounter. Will definitely check your other videos. Thumbs up of course.

[birendrakumar-glgq]

This video has very important and the very basic information if you are just starting out with autonomous drones,
***Very important***

[alidursun]

The clear and complete explanation I have never seen before. Congratz.

[ZombiemodzFPV]

this opens up a whole new way of thinking for me. WOW!

[dogukartal]

Finally find out the answer, why to use flight controller while you can code it and they are expensive. Thank you

[antoninperbosc]

Very interesting video about diff between flight computer VS flight controler with clear information.
Thanks for sharing with us !

[sandipdas]

I am very new. Your teaching style is really awesome

[richardtobing]

this is the best explaination ive heard yet.

[kavorka]

actually a flight computer is an outdated expression used for some onboard analog sensors in the past. In your context, however, a flight controller is the same as a flight computer. Flight controllers have a microcontroller unit, which is basically a computer with both flash and ram memories together with what's known as peripherals. Flight controllers accept signals from a local or remote controller, usually with sticks, buttons and potentiometers.

[HellaNorCal]

Thank you for the great video. I've recently been interested in drones and the diy side of building them. I appreciate your hard work 🤘🏼

[ppandey]

Awesome Video, Thank you very much for this

[flighttherapybullisticfpv]

I can run arudpilot on a Kakute f7 mini v2 thats the size of a pack of matches (seriously, look it up) and the cpu doesnt get bogged down running a few basic peripherals. If anybody is looking to make their RC plane autonomous just start with an Omnibus f4 board and install arduplane. The amount of things you can do with a $30 board and an open source flight platform is truly unreal.

[KingdomChablo]

Can't you do all of this only using a microcontroller such as an stm32? Or can't you have 2 micro controllers and make one computer do stabilisation stuff while the other receive telemetry and stuff?

[TheBarthew]

Hello! I'm about to graduate from computer science. And, I'd love to know where I can find more information about how the flight computer of a drone works and how to program it. In the near future, I'd love to merge that with autonomous decision-making by using some kind of machine learning algorithm. Which sources would be helpful to dive deep into it and know all of its inner workings that will bring me closer to the goal that I have in mind? Thank you!!

[matts]

Thanks, Nicholas - great intro' - TY! :D

[danieltoone]

Could you possibly do a video on how to communicate with a flight controller using a flight computer? You give the example of ROS for a flight computer, but doesn't that require your flight controller to use ROS in order to receive ROS messages?

[aniwilling]

Hello Sir,
I have a Question?
Can I use that Receiver which is used in Brushed motor Drones (Like syma X8pro Receiver) to make a Brushless Motor Drone ?
If Yes then How, any way?
pleaseeee Explain,

[akkaradechsrithongchai]

Very good vdo that for get robust understanding.