From microcontrollers to high-performance processors, the "brain" of drones is undergoing a technological revolution. Drones have rapidly expanded from professional fields to consumer markets in recent years, and the performance of their core control systems directly determines the flight experience and application value. As the "brain" of drones, the main control chip undertakes key tasks such as flight control, sensor data processing, task execution, and communication interaction. Its selection directly affects the stability, reliability, and functional richness of drones.
The flight control system of a drone is a complex and precise integrated system, consisting of two main parts: hardware and software. The hardware core includes components such as the main control chip, sensor module, power management, communication interface, and motor drive. These components work together to achieve flight attitude calculation, navigation control, and task management through efficient algorithms.
The importance of the main control chip in unmanned aerial vehicle systems is self-evident - it is responsible for processing data from IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) GPS、 Multiple data such as visual sensors are used to run flight control algorithms and output precise control signals to motors and servo mechanisms.
The performance of the main control chip directly determines whether the drone can achieve advanced functions such as precise hovering, smooth flight, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and intelligent route planning
When choosing a drone control chip, engineers need to consider multiple performance parameters comprehensively. Processing capability is the primary factor, including clock speed, number of cores, and architecture.
For applications that require complex calculations, such as visual SLAM and real-time path planning, the floating-point computing capability and DSP instruction set support of the chip are particularly important.
Balancing power consumption and heat dissipation is crucial for consumer grade drones, directly affecting flight time and user experience. Industrial grade and military drones place greater emphasis on the environmental adaptability and reliability of their chips, requiring support for industrial grade operating temperatures ranging from 40 ℃ to 85 ℃ or even wider.
The richness of peripheral interfaces is equally crucial. The main control chip needs to provide sufficient SPI, I2C, UART, CAN and other interfaces to connect various sensors and actuators. At the same time, the number of PWM output channels needs to meet the motor control requirements of multi rotor unmanned aerial vehicles.
Real time performance determines the response speed of unmanned aerial vehicles to control instructions. When using real-time operating systems (RTOS) or bare metal programming, interrupt response time and task switching efficiency directly affect the accuracy of flight control.
MCU occupies a dominant position in the field of small and medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicle control due to its high real-time performance, low power consumption, and rich peripheral interfaces.
STMicroelectronics' STM32 series is the most common choice among consumer grade drones, especially the STM32F4/F7/H7 series. These chips are based on ARM Cortex-M cores and integrate hardware FPUs (Floating Point Units) to meet the computing power requirements of complex attitude calculation and control algorithms.
The extensive support of open-source flight control communities such as ArduPilot and PX4 for the STM32 series further consolidates its market position.
Microchip's dsPIC33EP series digital signal controllers perform excellently in motor drive control. DsPIC33EP32MC204 is designed for motor control optimization, integrating 3 sets of complementary PWM outputs and 12 bit ADC modules, supporting field oriented control (FOC) algorithm, and can achieve high-precision and low-noise drone propeller drive.
The rise of domestic MCU provides new options for drone manufacturers. The GD32F4 series from Zhaoyi Innovation, as a replacement chip for the mainstream F405RG in the drone market, has significant advantages in clock frequency performance and has been integrated into BETAFLIGHT related platforms.
The Yateli AT32F415 series adopts the Cortex-M4 core, with a main frequency of 150MHz, and integrates a 16 bit PWM advanced control timer with dead zone control, which can meet the precise requirements of drone controllers for motor control.
With the development of drone intelligence, the demand for visual processing, AI inference, and complex task planning is driving the application of MPU in the field of drones.
The Nvidia Jetson series (such as Jetson Nano, TX2) provides powerful AI computing capabilities, suitable for intelligent drones that require real-time computer vision, deep learning obstacle avoidance, and advanced path planning. These types of processors typically work in conjunction with MCU with better real-time performance, where MCU handles the underlying flight control and MPU is responsible for high-performance computing tasks.
The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+MPSoC used by Ruisu Yingke is a hybrid FPGA/CPU architecture that combines the flexibility of processors with the parallel computing capabilities of FPGAs.
This solution has been successfully applied to drone flight and video controllers, supporting dual flight controller unit redundancy, and can compress full HD video signals from cameras while controlling the flight.
As a newcomer, Raspberry Pi RP2350 enters the FPV drone market with its unique programmable I/O (PIO) advantage. PIO can be understood as a small dedicated coprocessor that can independently handle I/O tasks and offload timing critical tasks such as DSHOT (ESC protocol) and CRSF (receiver protocol) from the main CPU.
This enables the CPU to be dedicated to executing flight control loops, improving flight performance. The dual core architecture of RP2350 also provides possibilities for task division in future Betaflight versions.
NXP's i.MX RT series cross-border processors combine the real-time performance of MCU with the application processing capability of MPU, with a clock speed of several hundred MHz, suitable for mid to high end drones that need to run more complex visual algorithms or AI models.
The global drone control chip market presents a diversified competitive landscape. According to industry reports, the main participants in the drone control chip market include STMicroelectronics、Allwinner Technology、Ambarella、TI、Samsung、Hisilicon Waiting for international manufacturers.
Qualcomm enters the drone market through its Snapdragon Flight platform, which is highly integrated and significantly reduces the manufacturing cost and selling price of drones. The Snapdragon chip integrates wireless communication, sensor integration, and spatial positioning functions, and has been applied to products such as Zero Unlimited's Hover Camera and Zero Degree Intelligent Control's Dobby.
Intel combines its Atom processor with RealSense technology to provide advanced obstacle avoidance and environment awareness capabilities. Intel is more inclined to provide solutions for drones, especially in the field of vision. Its RealSense technology uses infrared lasers to effectively improve the accuracy of obstacle detection.
The trend of domestic substitution is becoming increasingly evident in the field of drone chips. North China Industrial Control has launched the EMB3541 domestically produced motherboard based on the ARM CortexA55 quad core processor, which integrates dual core heterogeneous engines and provides up to 10.4Tops@INT8 The NPU of computing power meets the requirements of special equipment drones for AI accelerated computing and real-time performance.
The selection of the main control chip for unmanned aerial vehicles needs to comprehensively consider multiple factors such as application scenarios, performance requirements, and cost constraints.
Consumer grade drones, such as aerial cameras and selfie drones, typically require a balance between performance, power consumption, and cost. ST's STM32F4 series and Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight are common choices, with the latter being particularly suitable for scenarios that require high integration and computer vision capabilities.
Industrial and special application drones have higher requirements for reliability and environmental adaptability. The EMB3541 from North China Industrial Control supports wide temperature operations ranging from 20 ℃ to 70 ℃, and has industrial grade high reliability such as electromagnetic interference resistance, earthquake resistance, dust prevention, and moisture resistance, making it suitable for special equipment unmanned aerial vehicle applications.
FPVs and racing drones have extremely high requirements for real-time response and low latency. The emerging Raspberry Pi RP2350, with its PIO advantage, can free up CPU dedicated to flight control, providing a smoother flying experience while offering extremely high cost-effectiveness.
In the context of academic research and development, flexibility and ecological support have become key factors. The STM32 series is highly favored due to its rich open-source community support and mature open-source flight control platforms such as ArduPilot and PX4.
Under the wave of chip localization, the path of domestic substitution in the drone industry is becoming increasingly clear. The Zhaoyi Innovation GD32 series and Yateli AT32 series have been successfully applied in unmanned aerial vehicle flight control and electronic control systems, with performance comparable to international mainstream products.
The advantage of domestic chips lies not only in cost and political factors, but also in localized technical support and customized services. The cooperation case between Aisi Technology and Zhaoyi Innovation shows that domestic chip manufacturers can provide comprehensive software and hardware support from development to mass production and firmware updates, effectively simplifying the development process and shortening the product launch cycle.
Domestic chips have also made progress in connecting international open-source flight control platforms, such as the GD32F4XX series which has been connected to the BETAFLIGHT platform and is expected to update the relevant source code.
The technology of drone control chips continues to evolve, presenting three major trends: heterogeneous integration, intelligence, and specialization.
Heterogeneous computing architecture has become the mainstream choice for high-end drone control chips, such as CPU+GPU+NPU combinations, to meet the needs of different computing tasks. North China Industrial Control EMB3541 integrates Gundam 10.4Tops@INT8 The NPU of computing power is a reflection of this trend.
AI edge computing capability is gradually integrated into the master chip. Infineon's XMC4500 microcontroller has been optimized for drone applications that require high performance and energy efficiency.
Specialized chip design is emerging, optimized for specific application scenarios. Ruisu Yingke's solution based on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+MPSoC simultaneously realizes flight control and video processing functions, meeting the needs of professional drones for parallel processing of multiple tasks.
With the continuous development of technology, drone control chips will continue to evolve towards higher integration, stronger AI computing power, and better energy efficiency. The rise of domestic chips has provided drone manufacturers with more diversified choices, while also promoting competition and technological innovation in the global drone chip market.
In the future, with the deep integration of 5G, artificial intelligence, edge computing and other technologies, the UAV master chip will become more intelligent, efficient and professional, opening up broader possibilities for UAV applications.