Understanding differences between ArduPilot EKF and PX4 EKF

ArduPlane Plane 4.6
1

I’m working on a VTOL PLANE project and trying to understand the practical differences between ArduPilot EKF (EKF2/EKF3) and PX4 EKF.

From an engineering perspective:

  • What are the main design philosophy differences?

  • In which scenarios does ArduPilot EKF typically perform better (or worse) than PX4 EKF?

  • How do they compare in terms of sensor fusion robustness (GPS degradation, high vibration, high dynamics)?

Any insights from real-world usage would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Internal state estimator is pretty far down the list of things you should be considering when picking the stack.

One difference is that AP runs one EKF core per IMU and PX4 runs one EKF core per sensor combination when lane affinity is enabled.

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