Connecting Raspberry Pi 3 to Pixhawk via USB

Hi folks, I am trying to connect a Raspberry Pi 3 to the Pixhawk module in a 3DR Solo drone for the purpose of implementing an autonomous school robotics project. The purpose of the Raspberry is for computer vision and to send command messages via Mavlink to guide the drone towards a target.

The Pixhawk module has a black color unmarked cube on the Solo mainboard and is running the PX4 flight stack. For simplicity of wiring, I am currently trying to connect the Raspberry to the Pixhawk via the USB ports instead of the serial GPIO pins on the Raspberry to the breakout board on the accessory bay of the Solo.

I am following the instructions listed in this link: https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-032316-184225/unrestricted/MQP-RVC1601.pdf but am not getting the output shown. I am aware the weblink was written for a Pi 2 and have adapted the steps for a Pi 3.

When the Solo is not powered up via its battery, connecting the Raspberry (powered by its own wall supply) via USB to the Pixhawk cube (on the Solo mainboard) still boots up the Pixhawk as I can hear the startup melody. Thereafter running the mavproxy command has some outputs which it ends up in a command line showing LOITER> 

This command line is not responsive to any further inputs from me.

When I switch on the Solo battery, the terminal window shows a message "...link dead", followed by "no link".

1) Is it even feasible to connect Raspberry to Pixhawk (on the Solo mainboard) via USB ports ?

2) I would appreciate any advice to overcome the problem, thank you. 

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