There are a number of different controllers available for our mechs – from the Commander with an Xbee on it, to custom built control cases, to RC plane controls.
I’m using the FS-i6S controller, which is for planes/drones. It has good range, uses spread spectrum (so many can be in the same place at the same time) and, most importantly, the receiver outputs serial data of 10 channes, 16-bit values, 60 times a second, at 115,200 bps. Thus, it’s very easy to read from a microcontroller with an available serial port.
I have some code I use to decode the serial protocol and provide the raw channel values to my Teensy microcontroller: