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DUAL AUTOPILOT

AUTOPILOT FAILURE RESILIENCE

Corvus intelligently manages 2 autopilots and automatically switches from primary to secondary autopilot if necessary:

Single point of failures must not lead to loss of vehicle stability. Therefore both autopilots are being monitored during normal operation, therefore redundancy can be guaranteed.

During normal operation there are no additional tasks for the user, vehicle control does not differ from not having Corvus installed. In the background both autopilots are constantly being monitored. If secondary autopilot is not ready for taking over controls, lack of redundancy is being reported over mavlink. If primary autopilot fails when secondary autopilot is not capable of taking over, a parachute can be chosen as an additional backup. If Corvus’ software ever crashes – your vehicle will continue to operate with the default controls and primary autopilot stays in control!


AUTOPILOT COMPATIBILITY


FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION

Both autopilots’ pulse width modulated (PWM) signals (and mavlink status messages) are constantly being analyzed by dutycycle and frequency. EKF filters can also be chosen to trigger a fail over event. When signals don’t represent a valid PWM signal to the speed controllers, corvus checks if secondary autopilot’s status and PWM signal is healthy:

If the 2nd autopilot is ready for takeover, all controls (PWM signal, remote controls and telemetry) will be handed over.

If the 2nd autopilot is not ready (armed & valid PWM signals) for takeover during normal flight, you will be informed over mavlink.

The secondary autopilot will only be armed by corvus when arming of the primary autopilot is detected. Corvus does NOT control (especially arm or disarm) the primary autopilot.

Corvus is not an autopilot on it’s own. It is an objective instance to surveille 2 autopilots. For redundancy, choosing 2 different autopilots (in terms of soft- and hardware) is the optimal choice for resilience. Backup autopilots must support MAVLINK protocol including arming and flight mode control.

PWM signal thresholds (frequency, dutycycle, amount of PWM signals) & many more details are customizeable through Mission Planner!

If

AND

      -> Corvus switches controls to secondary autopilot


PWM SIGNAL MODULE



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