Paparazzi Project

Paparazzi is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft.^[1] Low cost and availability enable hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft.^[2] The project began in 2003,^[1] and is being further developed and used at École nationale de l'aviation civile (ENAC),^[3] a French civil aeronautics academy. Several vendors are currently producing Paparazzi autopilots and accessories.

Overview

An autopilot allows a remotely piloted aircraft to be flown out of sight.^[1] All hardware and software is open-source and freely available to anyone under the GNU licensing agreement. Open Source autopilots provide flexible software: users can easily modify the autopilot based on their own special requirements, such as forest fire evaluation.^[4][5] Paparazzi collaborators share ideas and information using the same MediaWiki software that is used by Wikipedia.^[6]

Paparazzi accepts commands and sensor data, and adjusts flight controls accordingly. For example, a command might be to climb at a certain rate, and paparazzi will adjust power and/or control surfaces. As of 2010 paparazzi did not have a good speed hold and changing function, because no air speed sensor reading is considered by the controller.^[5]

Delft University of Technology released its Lisa/S chip project in 2013 which is based on Paparazzi.^[7]

Mechanisms

Hardware

Paparazzi supports for multiple hardware designs, including STM32 and LPC2100 series microcontrollers. A number of CAD files have been released.

Paparazzi provides for a minimum set of flight sensors:^[8]

• Attitude (orientation about center of mass) estimation is done with a set of infrared thermopiles.
• Position and altitude are obtained from a standard GPS receiver.
• Roll rate measurement may be input from an optional gyroscope.
• Acceleration from optional inertial sensors.
• Direction from optional magnetic sensors.

Software

The open-source software suite "contains everything" to let "airborne system fly reliably".^[9]

See also

• Crowdsourcing
• Micro air vehicle
• ArduCopter open source autopilot software
• OpenPilot open source autopilot software
• Open-source robotics
• PX4 autopilot
• Slugs (autopilot system)
• Ardupilot