Cybflight: An Embedded Rust Autopilot for Aerial Robotics Research

2026-09-25

AI Summary

This study addresses the reliance of aerial robot flight deployments on companion computers or modified flight controllers by proposing an open-source, research-grade autopilot built upon embedded Rust. The system integrates Model Predictive Contouring Control (MPCTC) and Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (INDI) on a single STM32H743 microcontroller. Typed, swappable interfaces are employed to decouple perception, planning, and control modules while enabling compile-time optimizations. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the platform achieves flight speeds of 12.38 m/s indoors and 31.4 m/s outdoors under GNSS-based localization. These results validate the feasibility of deploying high-performance nonlinear control on resource-constrained microcontrollers without compromising modularity or real-time performance.

Abstract

Bringing an aerial robotics method from simulation to flight should not require rebuilding a mature autopilot or adding a companion computer. Cybflight is an open-source embedded Rust research autopilot whose typed, replaceable interfaces connect hardware access, perception, state estimation, trajectory planning, and control. This modular development and compile-time optimization workflow is demonstrated with replaceable Rust implementations of model predictive contour-tracking control (MPCTC) and incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion (INDI) running on one STM32H743 without a companion computer. Using this configuration, the vehicle reaches 12.38 m/s during indoor flight, while an outdoor flight using global navigation satellite system (GNSS) position updates reaches 31.4 m/s. These flights show that running demanding estimation and nonlinear control entirely on a flight-controller microcontroller need not come at the expense of a modular autopilot structure.

Problem

• aerial robotics
• autopilot
• embedded systems
• modular architecture
• microcontroller

Innovation

• Embedded Rust
• Modular Autopilot
• Model Predictive Contour-Tracking Control
• Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion
• Companion Computer-Free