UdaciDrone with PX4

Here is an overview of the functionality that UdaciDrone provides with a PX4 drone using the Mavlink protocol. For more specific details on the implementation of the communication with PX4 over Mavlink, check out the mavlink_connection.py and mavlink_utils.py classes.

This document discuses the following:

• general PX4 configuration
• mavlink connection with PX4

General PX4 Setup

These are a set of general setup instructions. Note that your platform may have slightly different instructions based on how the PX4 flight stack is setup and installed.

TODO: add instructions using the Intel Aero as an example

MavlinkConnection Overview

TODO: instructions for using the PX4Connection class, for both a shell version and a script version.

The connection takes slightly different inputs depending on whether the connection is to be used in the Python Shell or in a Python Script.

Address

One of the main inputs to the MavlinkConnection is the "address" of the drone. If you are sending commands over the wireless link, this would be the serial port and baud rate to use for the communication, while if you are on something like the Intel Aero, this would be UDP address to the UDP stream of the connection to the PX4 autopilot.

Therefore this is really platform dependent and we can only list some of the popular options, you may need to look into the documentation of your specific drone for this.

Python Shell

For use in a python shell:

>>> conn = PX4Connection('<serial port and baud rate>', threaded=True)

Python Script

For use in a python script:

>>> conn = PX4Connection('<serial port and baud rate>', threaded=False)