Offboard control

mtbsteve · January 28, 2019, 4:20pm

Maybe a dumb question since I could not find any further instructions - does Arducopter have an equivalent flight mode comparable to the PX4 “Offboard” mode which allows to control the drone by a companion computer eg using MavROS while still be able to take back control by RC in case of emergency?
https://px4.io/user-guide-2/

ppoirier · January 28, 2019, 4:34pm

Take a look at the wiki http://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/companion-computers.html
And to drone kit python: http://python.dronekit.io/

khancyr · January 28, 2019, 7:29pm

Hello,

Yes, the equivalent mode is guided mode : http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/ac2_guidedmode.html#ac2-guidedmode . And we are working with MavROS too !

mtbsteve · January 28, 2019, 8:54pm

Thanks! I will dig into this.
I am looking into recreating the Nvidia redtail project, which uses the PX4 stack in conjunction with MavROS.

github.com

NVIDIA-AI-IOT/redtail/blob/master/ros/packages/px4_controller/src/px4_controller.cpp

// Copyright (c) 2017, NVIDIA CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
// Full license terms provided in LICENSE.md file.

/**
    px4_controller ROS node. Implements simple waypoint based controller for PX4/Mavros flightstack.
    It accepts input from either game controllers (Xbox and Shield) or from DNN that decides
    what direction the drone should fly. Once control signal is received it sets a waypoint at the
    right distance in correct direction. Also, allows finer grain controls over drone position.
    Authors/maintainers: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Alexey Kamenev
*/

#include "px4_controller/px4_controller.h"
#include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
#include <mavros_msgs/ParamGet.h>
#include <mavros_msgs/ParamSet.h>

namespace px4_control
{

PX4Controller::PX4Controller()

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I want to understand if I need to switch to PX4 or if I can realize that project with Arducopter instead.

ppoirier · January 28, 2019, 9:56pm

Someone worked on it at the latest GSOC

mtbsteve · January 28, 2019, 10:36pm

Thank you this is the information I was looking for!
Since I have no experience with PX4 I would prefer if I could stay with Arducopter moving forward with this project