I'm trying to modify an IRIS+ drone to be "controlled" by an (autonomous) boat. Here is my plan on the boat and drone sides, respectively:
Boa:
- Create a custom GCS (ie, laptop or boat, preferably lightweight)
- Allow the GCS to toggle GPS pre-arm check, to arm the UAV, to set certain parameters (both custom and built-in, including which autonomous mode), and to receive status updates
- Allow GCS to arm UAV and then make the UAV start its task
- Use that GCS to receive images whenever the UAV decides to send them
On the drone side of things:
- Pre-arm: Receive parameters for the task (toggle GPS pre-arm check, which custom flight mode to use
- During tasks: Give custom/select feedback to the GCS
- Process images (As far as I've seen, only the AP_Camera library touches the camera at all, so I'm going to assume that I need to create a hook from AP_Camera.cpp to my own code somehow)
- Send select images to the GCS
I've been looking over MAVLink as well as DroidPlanner (Android app) and Mission Planner for how to set up a basic GCS to only do the above. I'm at a complete lost at how to do this (and this unfortunately didn't help creating one, although it certainly helped understand it in a broader sense).
On the Drone side of things, I have a basic, broad plan on where to implement my custom autonomous tasks that I can slowly work out. However, I have no idea how to work with MAVLink and send/receive certain data whenever I need to.
Can you point the way for me to set up a pseudo-GCS and to be able to send/receive the data listed above? Thank you for any and all help!
Replies