Drone Flight Controller with the OSD32MP15x
Published On: February, 16, 2021 By: Gene Frantz | Updated: March 26, 2021 by Cathleen Wicks
Drones, a.k.a. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), that were once limited to military applications are now being rapidly adopted in commercial, scientific, and consumer markets. Advancements in semiconductor technology that have led to smaller and more energy efficient processors, reductions in manufacturing costs, and open source software frameworks have all contributed to the widespread adoption of drones. For example, a fleet of drones were featured during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremonies to create a magnificent, memorable display.
Compared to piloted aircrafts, drones can be significantly smaller, lighter, and cheaper. They come in all different sizes and configurations such as “fixed wing”, “multi-rotor”, or “mini” (i.e. drones that can fit on the palm of a hand). They can also be semi-autonomous (remote controlled by human operator) or fully autonomous (controlled by an on-board computer). Although military drones, like the US Army’s Predator Drone, use jet fuel or fuel cells, most consumer and commercial drones use battery power. Therefore, an energy efficient, robust, computationally powerful processor with a small footprint is necessary for the development of drones. These requirements make the OSD32MP15x family of devices, based on the versatile STMicroelectronics STM32MP15x, ideal for this application. It is worth noting that, although this report focuses on the drone, the OSD32MP15x is equally capable of controlling any robotic application.
The OSD32MP15x System-in-Package (SiP) integrates an 800MHz ST Microelectronics Dual Core ARM™ Cortex™ A7 STM32MP15x processor, up to 1GB of DDR3 memory, and the STPMIC1 Power Management system into a small (18x18mm) System-in-Package (SiP). It also includes as part of the STM32MP15x an ARM™ Cortex™ M4 processor to manage the real time tasks efficiently while the Dual Core A7 can run Linux.
A PDF of this Application Note can be downloaded here.
The OSD32MP15x
Now for a quick preview of the OSD32MP15x and how it can be the compute engine of a drone and also have the functionality to keep up with the performance and power efficiency demands of your future control systems:
Both a microprocessor and a microcontroller
Combining power efficiency and performance, the OSD32MP15x can read data from sensors, process the data and manage the flight control system in real-time while performing mapping, communication, or other non-real-time functions in parallel. The combination of an ARM™ Cortex™-A7 and a M4 processors makes the OSD32MP15x the optimal solution for a drone.
Dual core ARM™ Cortex™-A7 Processor
Can drive a high-resolution audio and visual I/O both in the air and on the ground (I.e., a personal assistant quality GUI), process high level environmental information such as images and video from cameras, wirelessly transfer data from the drone to the controller to the cloud, and still have bandwidth to communicate with the ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller while the M4 takes on the tasks of acquiring data and controlling the flight.
ARM™ Cortex™-M4 microcontroller
Is a 209MHz RISC core that is designed to handle the control aspects of the drone efficiently: the camera orientation, flight directives and other tasks that require real time management or need to be run at low power.
Energy Efficient
Even running at its full speed of 800MHz, the OSD32MP15x is designed to be power efficient device. With support for all low power modes, the power dissipation can be significantly reduced to support a wide range of applications while battery powered.
Smallest Single Chip Computer Solution
The OSD32MP15x family offers single chip computer solutions that are over 60% smaller than a discrete implementation, making it ideal for drones of all shapes and sizes.
Linux open source libraries
Along with the OpenST Linux Distribution from ST, STM32MP1 is fully supported by mainline Linux and Yocto, you can leverage the Open-source Linux community to help speed up your development cycle.
Versatile GPIO interfaces
The OSD32MP15x supports multiple communication protocols/interfaces like DSI, DCMI, UART, I2C, SPI, CAN, MMC, SDIO, USB, PWM, etc. to connect and control any peripheral needed for your drone (or robotic) design.
Faster Time to Market
The OSD32MP15x makes designing with a powerful Dual Core ARM Cortex-A7 processor as easy as working with a Microcontroller. You spend less time on getting the processor to work and more time on developing your product.
Get Started Today
Low Cost development tools (OSD32MP1-BRK) and Full Featured (OSD32MP1-RED) Open-source development platforms are available to begin developing today.
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