Cube: The Ubiquitous Open-Source Autopilot with Powerful MATLAB Support

The backbone of the UxV industry, the Cube, was designed over 10 years ago. The flexible interface standard allows the latest Cube model to be used in a first-release Cube or Pixhawk2 drone. Hundreds of thousands of units have been sold and used to save lives, deliver critical medicine, deliver transplant organs, and keep people out of harm’s way by inspecting hazardous environments.

CubePilot products are supported by MATLAB^® through the UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots. This provides connectivity to the Cube autopilot and the option to automatically build and deploy flight control algorithms with Embedded Coder^®. Simulink^® is required for users who want to simulate with or deploy flight controller models. The package provides a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation environment that enables users to perform HIL simulation of UAV dynamics and sensors.  It also provides a co-simulation framework for UAVs that lets users perform scenario visualization in the Unreal Engine using Simulink^® 3D Animation™. For more information, see the MathWorks® web site about using the PX4 Autopilot support package and details on deploying to the Cube.

Cube autopilots, along with CubePilot peripherals, are ubiquitous for UxVs running open-source software worldwide. With UAV Toolbox, MathWorks has committed to the industry as well. This integration of CubePilot’s open-source software and hardware framework with the capabilities of MATLAB will help autonomous UxV developers and those desiring realistic physics for Model Based Design.