Manually setting EKF Origin in Multi Robot Systems

Dear all,

following up on this discussion I’m looking for a way to manually set the EKF origin. The motivation is to have a common origin among multiple vehicles.

Currently, we apply a primitive patch to the EKF3 that prohibits GPS to set the origin and enables changing the origin.

Then, we set the origin manually through MAVROS’ set_gp_origin topic which sends a SET_GPS_GLOBAL_ORIGIN message to ArduPilot.

This works but is a bit hacky since the copter now relies on the external software setting the origin and cannot be used anymore for manual or mission flights.

We would like to contribute a method to the ArduCopter firmware that enables to manually set the origin in a coherent and safe way without breaking existing functionality and safety mechanisms.

Could you please share your thoughts

  • whether you think this is feasible,
  • how ArduCopter would need to be adapted, and
  • which safety considerations to keep in mind.

Thank you for your support!

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