Open Source Drone Update: August 2025

Summer 2025 has been a milestone period for the open source drone community. The long-awaited PX4 v1.16 release has finally arrived after nearly a year of development, bringing significant improvements across the board. The community continues to grow with new partnerships and events, including the announcement of the PX4 Developer Summit's return to Atlanta this November. From coast to coast, meetups are bringing together developers, researchers, and enthusiasts, while new members join the Dronecode Foundation to support the expanding ecosystem.

PX4 v1.16 release rolls out with major updates

After almost a year of development and community testing, PX4 Autopilot v1.16 has officially launched with substantial improvements across multiple areas. The release introduces bidirectional DShot communication for enhanced motor control, completely revamped rover support for ground vehicles, and Gazebo Harmonic simulation capabilities for better testing environments.

Security and connectivity have been strengthened with new log encryption features and dynamic ROS 2 translation capabilities. The update also brings enhanced sensor compatibility and expanded flight controller support, along with numerous bug fixes designed to streamline the development experience for the global PX4 community. Check out the release!

PX4 Developer Summit returns to Atlanta

The PX4 Developer Summit is making its highly anticipated return for 2025, scheduled for November 10-11 in Atlanta, Georgia. Registration is now open with early bird pricing available at $400 until September 7—a significant $250 savings from regular pricing.

The event is actively seeking talented engineers and speakers to present their work, with proposal submissions accepted until September 1. This summit promises to bring together the global PX4 community for two days of technical presentations, collaboration, and networking opportunities. Learn more.

LA meetup with ROS and Dronecode

The Dronecode and ROS communities joined forces for their biggest collaboration yet, hosted at Neros HQ in El Segundo. The joint meetup featured engaging technical talks, live flight demonstrations, and extensive networking opportunities, creating lasting connections between robotics developers from both ecosystems. Read the recap.

Raefly jons as newest Dronecode Member

The Dronecode Foundation welcomes Raefly as its latest Silver Member. With experience providing UAV debugging and technical services to more than 2,000 UAV companies and a strong commitment to open source principles, Raefly brings valuable industry expertise to the growing Dronecode community. Learn more.

Community innovation showcases

GPS-denied navigation breakthrough

Developer Andrew Bernas has created groundbreaking work enabling autonomous drone navigation in GPS-denied environments such as urban canyons, underground tunnels, and dense forests. The project implements Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) on a Jetson Orin Nano computer integrated with PX4 autopilot, demonstrating the versatility of open source drone technology in challenging conditions.

Decade of research at GRASP Lab

Fernando Cladera, PhD Student at GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania, presented "10 Years of PX4 at GRASP" during the Philadelphia meetup. His presentation showcases a remarkable decade of autonomous aerial robotics evolution at one of the world's leading robotics laboratories, highlighting the significant role PX4 has played in advancing academic research.

Improved Windows development experience

Ascend Engineering collaborated with Julian Oes to significantly improve MAVSDK builds on Windows, reducing developer headaches. The comprehensive tutorial guides developers through the complete stack, dependencies, configuration, and first application development in just five minutes, making Windows development more accessible than ever.

Open Source Summit Europe keynote

Dronecode General Manager Ramón Roche will keynote at Open Source Summit Europe alongside Kimberly McGuire. Their presentation, "Up, Up, and Away: Adventures in Aerial Robotics," will explore the unique challenges facing flying robots from a developer perspective, providing a comprehensive tour of UAV system technologies and real-world application development. Learn more.