Mode Switching for Amphibious Rover: Land to Water

ArduRover ArduBoat
1

Hi everyone,

I’m working on an amphibious rover project and need some help with configuring mode switching between land and water operations. Here’s a brief overview of my setup:

  • Motors for Land: Four motors connected to a motor driver using skid-steering.
  • Propulsion for Water: Two propellers connected to separate ESCs.
  • Flight Controller: CubePilot Orange.
  • Transmitter: RadioMaster TX16S.

What I’m looking to achieve:
I’d like to configure my transmitter to switch between land and water modes. Specifically, I want to kill the signals to the land motors when in water mode and vice versa, using a transmitter switch (e.g., a two- or three-position switch). This would prevent the motors from receiving unnecessary or conflicting commands when not in use.

Questions:

  1. Can this be configured directly in ArduPilot parameters, perhaps using servo outputs or auxiliary functions?
  2. Can I map a specific transmitter switch on the TX16S to toggle between land and water signals?
  3. If anyone has done something similar, are there recommended parameters or scripting methods to achieve this?

Any guidance or links to documentation/tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

2

You will probably need a Lua script to change the tuning gains as well as switch the outputs appropriately. Your use case is not directly supported otherwise.

3

Interesting, Ardupilot has no concept of water or land, just how much throttle & steering.

If you made the water controls and land controls have the same response curves PWM or Servo mappings, then ardupilot wouldnt know or care.

Ardurover manages water current as with the same logic as wind for aircraft. Seamlessly.