PX4 Flight Mode Switching / Navigation State Machine

We purposefully started from scratch for the PX4 native stack flight mode switching and navigation state machine, and looked at APM/ACM, Mikrokopter, Paparazzi, Asctec, many research systems / papers and some more unlisted opn source systems (this is only for the native PX4 software stack and does not apply to monolithic ports, like e.g. the APM/ACM port).
 
The diagram above shows the flight mode state machine and the different main modes the system can be in. As the graph shows it covers simple manual / FPV assisted flight as well as full autonomous flight and ensures sane transitions between the modes.
 
The proposal also covers mode switching as done from switched from the remote control and also covers the safety state machine (arming, error handling).
 
The detailed proposal is here: https://pixhawk.ethz.ch/px4/users/system_modes
 
Design Goals
  • Same flight modes for multi rotors and fixed wing (which is entirely possible, as you will see)
  • Have only few of them to keep it simple, yet to support all known user stories / application examples
  • Be operational with a minimum set of one 3-position switch and one 2-position switch

 

We have right now only implemented a minimal subset of this, essentially the first switch between manual, assisted and auto. This allows us to discuss this proposal with the luxury of still having all degrees of freedom in the design. Please consider the page linked above as ONE way to do it, there may be more and better ways - this post is trying to get a discussion going with all interested parties.

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Comment by Tim Green on January 26, 2013 at 7:16am
Wonder if 2.9 has a finite state diagram such as this?

Wiki Ninja Comment by Gary McCray on January 26, 2013 at 1:14pm

For those of us using the ArduPlane / Arducopter APM software a key issue is the excellent "Mission Planner" programmed by Michael Oborne and the Relatively comprehensive ArpuPilot and Arducopter Wikis.

I am definitely planning on switching to the PX4 for it's enhanced capabilities, but it seems to me that perhaps some "integration" of your efforts with ours might be helpful, Andrew Tridgell has been working daily to produce a HAL based interface of the PX4 to our Arducopter / pilot system.

Your proposed methods and abilities seem to closely parallel Andrews efforts from possibly a more versatile perspective.

Just seems like if it were reasonable to loosely merge these efforts it might be better for everybody.

I am not qualified to determine if this is actually feasible or desirable, only suggest you consider it. 

Comment by Ravi on January 27, 2013 at 6:39am

mode sequencing is a lot personl and mission specific. i have  rotary knob on mode channel on Arduplane 2.62. i find this sequnce very practical: Manual---Stabilize----FBWA-----Loiter----Auto------RTL. 6 modes are good enough. i never autoland.

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