Arducopter on Arduino clarifications needed

ArduCopter
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1

Hello,

Just wanted some clarification on a couple of things. If I wanted to fly a drone autonomously using an Arduino and Pixhawk, could I use the Arducopter software on the Arduino? (I want to use throw mode specifically) Also, would I be able to use MAVLink and the MAV commands at the same time that I’m using Arducopter?

Are GCS’s optional? I’ve been reading online and it looks like GCS’s are mostly used to monitor drone activity and data but are they necessary?

Thanks,

Priscilla

2

The arducopter FW runs on the pixhawk, your own software would run on the arduino and communicate with the pixhawk via serial interface using the Mavlink protocol. Only very old versions of arducopetr run on arduino boards, you do not want that, use a pixhawk instead it is much better. You can program the arduino yourself and control the pixhawk over mavlink. Even better would be to use a raspberry Pi instead of an arduino.