Andrew Tridgell
Associate Professor (honourary)
Canberra, Australia
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top School
Top expert inAutonomous Robotics and Computer Vision Development
Andrew Tridgell is a systems-focused software engineer and Associate Professor (honorary) with 30 years’ experience leading low-level driver architecture and fixed-wing/VTOL development for the ArduPilot project. As ArduPilot’s systems lead and a prolific open-source contributor, he bridges embedded firmware, bootloaders, radio stacks and ground-station tooling—work that has touched well-known projects like PX4, ccache and Kerberos (Heimdal). He combines deep hardware-software expertise (STM32, Si1000, ESP8266) with algorithm integration for research projects at ANU, including bushfire-related autonomy work. Beyond coding, he provides consulting for ArduPilot adopters and maintains extensive technical documentation and tooling across the ecosystem. Colleagues value him for solving subtle low-level problems—such as sensor bus and timing issues—that often make or break reliable flight systems.
30 years of coding experience
Australian National University
English, Swedish
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
1answer
0questions
Github Skills (67)
restructuredtext10
python10
firmware10
spi10
c1110
c1710
controls10
gssapi10
boot10
embedded10
bootloader10
autopilot10
mavlink10
rs10
u-boot10
Programming languages (20)
Github contributions (5)
ArduPilot/SiK
Nov 2011 - Sep 2022
Tools and firmware for the Si1000
Role in this project:
Back-end & Embedded Systems Developer
Back-end & Embedded Systems DeveloperContributions:2 reviews, 447 commits, 12 PRs in 11 years
Contributions summary:Andrew's contributions focused on the implementation of tools and firmware for the Si1000 radio. They added new parameters for radio configuration and improved the Manchester and Duty Cycle options. They also added support for antenna diversity and MAVLink2, indicating significant involvement in the radio's low-level operation and data transfer protocols. Additionally, they implemented a test tool to check the TDM performance.
firmware
ArduPilot/archived-PX4Firmware
Aug 2013 - Aug 2018
PX4 Firmware for PX4FMU autopilot and PX4IO servo / failsafe board
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:544 commits, 36 PRs, 146 pushes in 5 years
Contributions summary:Andrew's contributions primarily involved modifications and enhancements to the PX4 firmware, which is designed for autopilot and servo/failsafe board applications. The commits demonstrate a focus on improving hardware-specific drivers, particularly for STM32 microcontrollers and integrating support for sensors like the LSM303D and LL40LS lidar. Furthermore, the user worked on features for RC control, including SRXL and SBUS output rate configuration, and implementing features for the PX4IO firmware and its interactions with the FMU.
firmwarefailsafedronesautopilotpx4
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.