Boat with only waypoint mission and loiter mode

Hi Gurus,
I’m a beginner on Ardupilot trying to build a manned boat that requires waypoint mission and loiter features of Ardurover. The user can upload waypoints from the ground station to the flight controller and then it might be disconnected from the ground station. Using the remote the user should be switch to waypoint mission or manual mode. The user would be on the boat itself. I have an RC boat that runs with ESP 32 and PS4 remote connected via Bluetooth. I’m thinking whether it would be possible to add an ardupilot flight controller to this to enable waypoint mission and loiter mode. The challenge I see is it should have an RC transmitter/receiver or if need to use bluetooth it can be done via only through ground station. Is there way to do this without ground stations being connected throughout?

You need GCS to translate USB HID Joystick/gamepad to MAVLink commands but it can be a microcontroller that supports USB Host mode and has a serial output.

If you don’ t want manual control you can use Ardupilot buttons to switch between Auto and Manual.

You could also use WiFi serial adapter (USB cable works too) and mobile phone running QGroundControl with virtual joysticks

@LupusTheCanine Thanks for the inputs! So I can use microcontroller (I think ESP32 would fit for this) for converting the Joystick input that is connected to ESP32 and convert it into MAVLink command and send it via serial port to flight controller. Is this is idea?

Yes, the most suitable one right now is RC_CHANNELS_OVERRIDE, there is a new dedicated message for RC receivers that will get into Ardupilot in 4.6 though nothing stops you from implementing more complex controller to MAVLink conversion.

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I tried the RC_CHANNELS_OVERRIDE and few other commands to set mode, arm etc in ESP32 with MAVLink library and SITL in mission planner. It seems working fine. Didn’t tested with the flight controller. Im planning to use SpeedyBee F405 wing. Do you see any challenges in this?

I’m able to setup boat mode with Brushed motor with relay and servo using SpeedyBee FC. I used the coomon electric bike motor MY1016 motor and its working. Added an ESP32 as companion computer but with custom code for MAVLink to send RC channels and other controls from a PS3 to FC.