ArduPilot for students: what it is and how to start

You’ve seen the word “ArduPilot” in drone videos, project write-ups and forum threads. It sounds like something you need an expensive drone to understand. You don’t. You can start learning it today on the laptop you already have, so let’s work out what it actually is.

What is ArduPilot?

ArduPilot is autopilot software: the program that runs on a drone’s flight controller and does the flying. It reads the sensors, keeps the vehicle steady and follows the commands or mission you give it. It is open source, which means anyone can read the code, learn from it and suggest changes. The ArduPilot developers and their community of contributors build and maintain it. You can see their work, and the project’s licence, in the official ArduPilot repository on GitHub.

What kinds of vehicles can it fly?

This might surprise you. ArduPilot isn’t only for quadcopters: the project covers copters, planes and rovers too. The official ArduPilot docs list every vehicle type it supports. Check there for the current list rather than relying on any blog post, including this one.

Why students meet ArduPilot so often

Three reasons keep coming up. It costs nothing to use, its code is open for you to read, and it comes with detailed official documentation. There’s also a community behind it that answers questions and writes guides. For a student, that means you don’t have to learn alone or guess in the dark. So if ArduPilot is the pilot, who’s watching from the ground?

The three parts you’ll meet: firmware, ground station and MAVLink

Think of a plane coming in to land. There’s a pilot in the cockpit, a control tower on the ground, and a radio language they both use to talk. ArduPilot setups work the same way. Once you see these three parts, most tutorials start to make sense.

Firmware: the software on the flight controller

Firmware is software that lives on a small circuit board rather than on your computer. A flight controller is the board inside the drone that acts as its brain. ArduPilot is the firmware. It runs on that board, keeps the vehicle stable and carries out its mission, like the pilot in the cockpit.

Ground control station: your screen on the ground

A ground control station (GCS) is a program on your computer that lets you set up the drone, watch what it’s doing and plan missions. It’s your control tower. Mission Planner is the Windows ground station from the ArduPilot project. QGroundControl runs on several platforms and supports both ArduPilot and PX4 (another autopilot software), so it’s handy if you use a Mac or Linux.

MAVLink: the language they speak

MAVLink is the message protocol between the drone and the ground station. A protocol is simply an agreed format for messages, so both sides understand each other. Here’s the whole map in three lines:

flight controller runs the ArduPilot firmware
firmware and ground station swap MAVLink messages
ground station shows the drone's status on your screen

Want to read those messages with your own code? pymavlink gives Python access to MAVLink messages. We’ll cover pymavlink properly in a later post in this series. If you’ve never written code for a drone, start with your first Python script for a simulated drone. Now for the part you came for: how do you try all this without a drone?

Your first free step, no drone needed

You need a computer, an internet connection and some curiosity. Nothing else.

Read the right parts of the official docs first

Open the ArduPilot Copter docs and look for the introductory and getting-started pages. Don’t try to read everything. As you read, look for the three parts from the map above: where the docs talk about firmware, ground stations and MAVLink. Spotting them turns a big website into something you can navigate.

Try ArduPilot on a computer with its simulator

ArduPilot’s docs describe running the firmware in simulation on a computer. This is called SITL, short for “software in the loop”: the real flight software runs on your laptop, with a simulated vehicle in place of real hardware. It means you can practise without risking a crash or buying a board. Follow the simulation pages in the official docs for setup. A step-by-step guide is coming next in this series. Curious why simulation works as a teacher at all? Read what a simulator teaches you.

Explore a ground station alongside it

Pick the ground station that matches your computer: Mission Planner on Windows, or QGroundControl on Windows, Mac or Linux. Install it from its official page and click through the screens. Don’t worry if most menus mean nothing yet. You’re just learning where things live. For the rest of your toolkit, see the free software you need to start drone programming.

Frequently asked questions

Where to go next

This post is the first in a short series. Coming up: choosing between Mission Planner and QGroundControl, trying ArduPilot’s simulator on your laptop, reading your first MAVLink message with pymavlink, and planning a simple waypoint mission (a route of map points the drone follows) in simulation. Want the bigger picture first? Follow the free drone programming learning path. Never flown a drone before? Practise flying for free in your browser at sim.aasmaaerospace.in. There’s no install, it uses keyboard controls and it has 6 missions to try while you learn ArduPilot. When you’re ready to build, explore Aasma’s drone learning kits. Build it. Fly it. Code it. So here’s your next question: once ArduPilot is running in simulation, which ground station will you connect to it first?