Quadcopter.Garage
// 2026 reboot · v0.2.0 Live build log

Autonomous drone
engineering,
from the garage up.

An open-source build log of a quadcopter project — from a pile of parts to a drone that flies waypoint missions with vision-based obstacle avoidance. PX4, ROS2, edge AI, real flight. One long-form post per week.

Read the manifesto Subscribe
Stack
PX4 + ROS2
Compute
Jetson Orin
Duration
52 weeks
Budget
~$2.5k
// Flagship Build

Autonomous
Quad 2026.

A from-scratch autonomous quadcopter. Cube Orange+ on PX4 with a Jetson Orin Nano companion. The build runs for 12 months — every BOM line, every commit, every tuning log is public.

See full project
// Status Active
Week 1
of 52 · manifesto published
// Budget TBD
$0 / $2,500
spent / total estimated
// Stack
  • autopilotCube Orange+
  • companionJetson Orin Nano
  • firmwarePX4 v1.15
  • middlewareROS2 Jazzy
  • simGazebo Garden
// Year-End Goal

A drone that flies a waypoint mission with vision-based obstacle avoidance and GPS-denied fallback navigation. Fully open source. Tunable by anyone with a Cube, a Jetson, and a soldering iron.

// Dispatch

Latest posts.

3 published · 2026
// companion-shootout

Companion shootout: Jetson Orin Nano Super vs RPi 5 + Hailo-8L

The two single-companion options for an autonomous drone in 2026, in concrete detail. Plus why the split-companion architecture got cut.

12 min
// autonomous-drone-stack-2026

The autonomous drone stack in 2026: PX4, ROS2, and the companion computer decision

How the modern autonomous quadcopter stack fits together — autopilot, companion computer, ground station, and the DDS bridge between them.

8 min
// manifesto-2026

Why I'm rebuilding Quadcopter Garage in 2026

13 years later, the autonomous drone stack is finally something an engineer can build in their garage. Here's the plan.

5 min
// Roadmap

What's
coming.

The next 10 posts. One per week. The full roadmap runs 52 weeks — every post covers a concrete milestone with code, BOM, or CAD to back it up.

  1. 01
    The autonomous drone stack in 2026
    PX4, ROS2 Jazzy, edge AI layer, sim-to-real
  2. 02
    Building a ~$1k autonomous quad
    BOM deep dive, why each part
  3. 03
    Zero to first flight
    PX4 + QGroundControl setup, first manual hover
  4. 04
    Companion computers compared
    Jetson Orin Nano vs Pi 5 + Hailo-8L
  5. 05
    ROS2 + MAVROS2
    Sending setpoints from a Python script
  6. 06
    Gazebo Garden
    Your PX4 testbed before you risk the propellers
  7. 07
    PID tuning without tears
  8. 08
    Vision layer
    OAK-D vs ZED 2i, depth, YOLO11, costmaps
  9. 09
    GPS-denied navigation
    VINS-Fusion, ORB-SLAM3
  10. 10
    The dual-use nature of drone autonomy
// Subscribe

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