Optical flow working & integration understanding

Hello Everyone,

I’ve been reading about optical flow sensors for non-GPS applications. From what I’ve gathered, the key components for this setup include a camera for calculating ground velocity using optical flow techniques and algorithms, as well as a lidar or ultrasonic sensor for precise height estimation. This combination allows us to fly a drone in loiter mode even without GPS.

Please feel free to correct me if I’ve missed any crucial details or misunderstood something.

Now, I’m seeking guidance on how to make this setup work with the Pi camera. Specifically, I’d like to use the Pi camera to estimate ground velocity and a Maxbotic sensor for height estimation. My ultimate goal is to integrate this setup with Pixhawk as an optical flow sensor.

If anyone could offer advice, direction to similar projects for reference, or suggest libraries to use, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance, and I’m eagerly looking forward to your insights and suggestions.

I am trying to use the optical flow libraries to estimate the ground velocity using pi camera but need your help in integration with pixhawk.

I can make the serial communication to pixhawk but how can I send the estimated ground velocity? do I have to configure and change the parameters in a same way as optical flow sensor setup?

Really need your help in this, Thanks! and looking forward to your response.