Editing Unmanned aerial vehicle (section)

====Software====
Modern UAVs run a software stack that ranges from low-level firmware that directly controls actuators, to high level flight planning. At the lowest level, firmware directly controls reading from sensors such as an [[Inertial measurement unit|IMU]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.roboticsbook.org/S73_drone_sensing.html|title=7.3. Sensing for Drones — Introduction to Robotics and Perception|website=www.roboticsbook.org}}</ref> and commanding actuators such as motors. Control software (often referred to as an autopilot) is responsible for computing actuator speeds given desired vehicle velocity. Due to its direct interaction with hardware, this software is time-critical and may run on [[microcontroller]]s. This software may also handle radio communications, in the case of UAVs that are not autonomous. One popular example is the PX4 autopilot.

At the next level, autonomy algorithms compute the desired velocity given higher level goals. For example, [[trajectory optimization]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.roboticsbook.org/S75_drone_planning.html|title=7.5. Trajectory Optimization — Introduction to Robotics and Perception|website=www.roboticsbook.org}}</ref> may be used to calculate a flight trajectory given a desired goal location. This software is not necessarily time-critical, and can often run on a single board computer running an operating system such as [[Linux]] with relaxed time constraints.