To my own surprise MAVLink has grown way beyond my expectations, quite a few projects a
re now using it as their main protocol or have at least support for it. When I started to work on the initial protocol mid-2009 every encoding/decoding routine was hand-written, and we just needed something to report the detected patterns in the EMAV 2009 competition. It worked, our helicopter detected the patterns onboard and sent the correct name via MAVLink back to the basestation -1st place EMAV 2009 indoor autonomy competition.
The protocol evolved end of 2009/early 2010 when I rewrote it to be used as hard-realtime link for the flying machines area at ETH's Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control. By now quadrotors play piano with commands sent over an early version of MAVLink (I did not do the setup or the flight control algorithms, I just did the control unit to vehicle MAVLink communication)
MAVLink got in the meantime automatic protocol generation features. By now there is quite a list of projects using it, ranging from ground control stations to complete middleware solutions (including a MAVLink ROS interface). But before you sift through the list, make sure to sign up for the new mailing list if you're interested in further updates.
MAVLink mailing list and website
- Mailing list http://groups.google.com/group/mavlink
- Website http://qgroundcontrol.org/mavlink/
Autopilots using MAVLink
- ArduPilotMega (main protocol) http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/
- pxIMU Autopilot (main protocol) http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/wiki/electronics/imu
- SLUGS Autopilot (main protocol) http://slugsuav.soe.ucsc.edu/index.html
- UAVDevBoard/Gentlenav/MatrixPilot (initial support) http://code.google.com/p/gentlenav/wiki/MatrixPilot
Software packages using MAVLink
- QGroundControl http://www.qgroundcontrol.org/
- HK Ground Control Station http://code.google.com/p/happykillmore-gcs/
- MAVCONN Lightweight Aerial Middleware http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/wiki/software/middleware/start
- oooArk / MAVSim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wQVrM5SL2o&fe
- MAVLink for Python: git://git.samba.org/tridge/UAV/pymavlink.git
- MAVProxy (allows to connect multiple UDP/serial links, including flightgear): git://git.samba.org/tridge/UAV/MAVProxy.git
- ROS to MAVCONN/MAVLink bridge: https://github.com/pixhawk/mavlink-ros-pkg
Projects using MAVLink
- ArduPilotMega http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/
- PIXHAWK http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/
- UC Santa Cruz SLUGS http://slugsuav.soe.ucsc.edu/index.html
- ETH Flying Machine Arena http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/FMA
- ETH Distributed Flight Array http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/DFA
Comments
Actually the autopilot list was not complete, there is also a first commercial AP using the protocol:
FLEXIPILOT
http://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot1.2-osd-en.pdf
And since commercial developers care about customer experience and satisfaction the FLEXIPILOT developer is one of our best testers for MAVLink / QGroundControl. Thanks!