Collision Avoidance Alert on Mission Planner for ADS-B and FLARM

Dear Michael
Dear Mission Planner Dev Team

I was testing the FLARM collision avoidance system last year on drones (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXIbra6P8zc&t=67s) in a joint effort between the FLARM Company and the Swiss Federation of Civil Drones. Now FLARM is offering a new light FLARM Module for drones, which delivers the MAVlink components and IDs to the serial port of Pixhawk. It will provide the MAVlink message ADSB_VEHICLE #246. My understanding is that the uavionix ping ADS-B receiver uses the same message, so the proposal is also valuable for users of ping.

Mission Planner already displays ADS-B targets on the map, which is great. For practical purposes this is often no sufficient however, e.g. when we fly with a too high zoom level such that the intruder is not shown on the map. Furthermore, the operator is often focused on the flight task at hand (e.g. checking camera view), and not able to monitor the map continuously.

It would thus be a big help if Mission Planner could raise the attention of the operator if a potential threat approaches. Ideally this comprises both aural and visual cues when a target enters some perimeter around the UAV. Specifically I suggest:
• Give aural and visual warning when a target intrudes a perimeter of 3000m, 1500m and 750m around the UAV. The aural signal could increase in intensity the closer the intruder is.
• Indicate on Mission Planner distance and relative altitude of the target.
• If the zoom level is such that the intruder is not visible, a placeholder symbol (e.g. an arrow) should be placed on the boundary, indicating the direction of the intruder
• Optionally, we may think about temporarily changing the zoom level to show the intruder

Could a Logic like that be implemented without too much effort?

Best wishes
Severin

please check/read the arducopter wiki on adsb
http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-ads-b-receiver.html#enabling-manned-vehicle-avoidance
most of what you request already exists.
messages based on radius, and if you turn on audio alerts in mission planner.

please have a look at what is already there.

Hello Michael
Thank you! I will check this out in detail and will test it of course. On the first look, it seems very promising. Was there already someone testing the ADS-B Ping with Pixhawk in real? And maybe even with automatic collision AVD_F_ACTION?
I cannot find any link on testing or discussions or results on Youtube.
Best wishes, Severin

I have the pingUSB (rx for mission planner) and the ping1090 (ads-b rx and tx connected in the AP with mavlink) and I can’t get it working.

When I use in PC with pingUSB, I start the Ping program, and works well, detects the planes, then connect to Virtual Radar Server and works well, but I can’t get Virtual Radar Server with Mission Planner. How can I make it work?? I configured well the receiver but I think there is a problem with rebroadcasting config, any of formats work with Mission Planner.

With ping1090 anything works…

Mission Planner works well with other ADS-B programs, like rtl1090 which send raw TCP packets (i think i don’t know exactly if its raw or other ADSB format).

Hi aleixmarto,

Are you still having the problem with your Ping 1090?

Adrian

There are new developments in Flarm, e.g. a cooperation with uAvionix, as announce a couple of weeks ago. Also new EU regulation will be a factor. More on that here