TY  - EJOU
AU  - Aliane, Nourdine 

TI  - A Survey of Pixhawk/PX4 Autopilot and Its Impact on Research and Education
T2  - Computers, Materials \& Continua

PY  - 2026
VL  - 87
IS  - 3
SN  - 1546-2226

AB  - The rapid advancement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies has increased demand for flexible autopilot platforms suitable for both research and education. Among available options, the open-source Pixhawk/PX4 autopilot has emerged as a leading solution due to its modular architecture and robust software ecosystem. This survey examines the adoption of the Pixhawk/PX4 platform in research and education. The survey covers the analysis of the Pixhawk/PX4 autopilot software development APIs, its compatibility with ROS middleware and MATLAB/Simulink environments, and environments for software/hardware-in-the-loop simulations. Additionally, it explores the integration of Cutting-Edge technologies to enhance UAVs performance. By synthesizing these findings, this survey presents a holistic map of the Pixhawk/PX4 ecosystem, and it serves as a multifaceted resource, providing its diverse audience with critical insights to support informed tool selection for UAV development projects.
KW  - Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); autopilot; flight controller; Pixhawk/PX4; MAVLink; MATLAB/Simulink support package; software-in-the-loop; hardware-in-the-loop; ROS

DO  - 10.32604/cmc.2026.078545