Can Pixhawk /PX4 survive motor failure on hexacopter

PX4 Autopilot Flight Controllers 💻
1

I’m trying to find out if PX4 v1.9.2 running on a Pixhawk 1 flying a hexacopter can tolerate a motor failure and be successfully flown to the ground. I’ve heard that PX4 will not handle a motor failure condition and it will crash. Is this true?

Thanks,
Joe

1 Like
2

Good day, ardupilot can handle very well the issue about the failure of one motor.
I must do some test about how px4 can handle a motor issue, but im pretty sure im not mistaken about ardupilot.

3

Hi, I had done a bit of investigation of few months ago and could not find such a feature being operational on PX4. There is a circuit breaker parameter called CBRK_ENGINEFAIL to disable engine failure detection. By default, this parameter is set to have engine failure detection disabled. This makes me suspect that the feature may be in the works, but not implemented yet.

4

CBRK_ENGINEFAIL is for fixed wing flight. It will detect an underspeed condition and pitch down to maintain airspeed and prevent stall, ignoring altitude.

There is no logic in PX4 that detects and compensates for a failed multicopter motor.

A hex/octo running PX4 will likely still survive a motor out if MC_ROLLRATE_I and MC_PITCHRATE_I are high enough (and of course assuming there is sufficient thrust overhead). However this is not a special function, merely how the PID control loop works.

5

With this PR, Hexacopter can now suffer up to 2 actuator failures and still be able to fly.

However, note that you need an ESC with RPM feedback in order to use this feature!!