We are developing software for managing a drone without an RC.
The software uses Mavros to send the mavlink commands to a Pixhawk running Arducopter 3.2 firmware (Installed from Mission Planner). We can arm and take off the drone in guided mode without any issues. We can set a mission and execute it switching to auto, also working perfectly.
We now need to be able to pause the mission and move the drone using a PS3 controller. We are doing the pausing by switching back to GUIDED mode, which leaves the drone loitering. We want to, in that state, move the drone sending velocity setpoints. Mavros has a plugin which listens to velocity twists (normal velocity messages in ROS) and sends the SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED commands via Mavlink.
However, the drone does not move. Is there something I need to do in order to set the "guided velocity" mode? Looking at the Arducopter source code, I found this line, which seems to suggest that the method that I need (guided velocity) is only built depending on the NAV_GUIDED compile flag. Maybe that's not set in the firmware version that can be installed using Mission Planner?
Today I came across this post which looks very similar to the setup we are using. In that post Randy describes that he switches from AUTO to GUIDED to point the drone to the Balloon. He also states that the needed some custom changes to the PixHawk firmware. Are those changes still needed or are they already incorporated into 3.2?
I see that NAV_GUIDED is not enable by default here. Why is that? What other settings do I need to enable to get velocity setpoints to work while in GUIDED mode?
Thank you very much in advance!
Lucas
Replies
Lucas, have you had any luck yet with this issue or same boat?
Hi Carson,
I tried rebasing the modifications done in the Red Balloon on top of the current ArduCopter 3.2, but without success.
After that I abandoned this path, and started using RC Override to teleoperate the drone using a PS3 Joystick. This is not as good as sending velocity targets, but it was a faster solution.
Lucas