The 6th generation of Pixhawk Flight Management Units (FMUs) is now available. These open standards provide readily available hardware specifications and guidelines for drone systems development, including all aspects of mechanical and electrical specifications and guidelines for creating interoperable drone system components. 

Part of is a set of open standards endorsed by major semiconductor manufacturers, software companies, and drone engineering companies, these 6th generation standards were developed by the Pixhawk Special Interest Group, coordinated by the Dronecode Foundation.

"The latest Pixhawk open standards enable an ecosystem of trusted hardware and interoperability, thanks to a supportive community of open technology adopters in the drone industry," said Ramón Roche, GM of Dronecode Foundation. "The latest flight controller design benefits from increased reliability thanks to built-in redundancy, paired with ethernet, and a high-performing MCU, all accessible through the Pixhawk Autopilot Bus.”

There are two versions of the new Pixhawk FMUs, FMUv6X and FMUv6c: 

  • FMUv6X: This high-end version was made for performance and reliability.
  • FMUv6C: This reliable and cost-effective version was made for the cost-conscious end of the market.

Every version of Pixhawk ships with the latest supported version of the PX4 Flight Controller by default.

Currently, four companies are manufacturing hardware utilizing the Pixhawk 6 standards:

Click here for the complete features of the 6th Generation Pixhawk FMUs and to learn more about Pixhawk and the Dronecode Foundation.