In January of 2023, my friend Max Mueggler and I built an autopilot for a large model airplane we designed and built from foamboard the previous year for Oberlin College’s winter term program.
The autopilot was written in c++ and run on a Teensy microcontroller, which took sensor input from a 6-axis IMU and a GPS unit. A separate Arduino nano unit was used to drive the aircraft servos and switch between automatic and manual input. The aircraft was built from flite test brand 3/16″ foamboard, wood paint sticks, and steel pushrod. 2 Flite Test B power pack motors and ESCs were used for power, driving 10×6″ props.
The project was completed in four weeks from start to finish. Due to time and sensor limitations, only cruising was implemented; takeoffs and landings were all manual.
The codebase can be found at: https://github.com/maximumsomething/AerOC-autopilot