Gauging the aerial robotics community

[mrpollo]

@Jhiggy

PX4 and ROS2 doesn’t seem to be very active and as such- seems to have fallen behind. Community support for PX4 is very very low and questions often go unanswered on the forums/github.

I can see how that is 100% true; we were in the middle of re-architecture to simplify the whole process and were left carrying multiple solutions, and quickly ran into a wall, however, we are moving forward with an XRCE-DDS bridge which massively simplifies the comms between PX4 and ROS2, ping me if you have any questions, here’s a link to the docs (recently published) https://docs.px4.io/main/en/middleware/xrce_dds.html

Also it’s totally fair to move to Ardupilot, it’s a great project!

[mrpollo]

I’m flexible as well, I’m on PST but don’t mind a late or early call.

[KimMcG]

Great! I’ll will start a separate thread for a meeting then.

In the mean time, if anybody that want to add their info here, please go for it! The more info about what you are using the better as we will get a fuller picture about the community.

[Jhiggy]

@mrpollo Thank you for this Ramon!! I’ll see if I can get it working on my PX4 Vision =)

[mrpollo]

FYI we are proposing a meeting to get to know each other better

First explorative meeting Aerial robotics

Hi all! Based on the previous discussion thread it seems that we have quite some people here in the Aerial Vehicles group! Let’s plan a meeting to discuss some of the topics and if we want to do regular meetings? I have a proposed time and agenda, trying to keep in mind other ROS workgroup meetings and since most that replied are in Europe or USA: Tuesday 21th of March 2023-03-21T15:00:00Z (UTC)→2023-03-21T16:00:00Z (UTC) UPDATED TIME!! Meeting link with google meet: meet.google.com/nqz-tx…

[AlexKlimaj]

• Name and affiliation? - Alex Klimaj - ARK Electronics

• Which aerial platform do you use, autopilot and which ROS package? - I design and build autopilots and sensors mostly for use with PX4 and Ardupilot. My main focus is on PX4. I don’t currently use ROS, but I am working on a Pixhawk Autopilot Bus Jetson Carrier to help bring PX4 and ROS together. Long term we would like to see PX4/ROS being an easy to install package on the Jetson for controlling mobile robots.

• What are you still missing in ROS framework for your platform and project? - Not sure yet.

My main goal for this year is to get a Jetson PAB Carrier to market. Then to have an open source demo a user can install that will do basic path planning and obstacle avoidance using ROS with the goal of giving end users a jumping off point.

I am planning on attending ROScon this year as well.

[ripdk12]

• Name and affiliation?
  Christian Boysen, EE undergrad at DTU
• Which aerial platform do you use, autopilot and which ROS package?
  PX4 on CubePilot CubeOrange+, ROS/ROS2 on various Jetson boards (melodic/humble).
• What are you still missing in ROS framework for your platform and project?
  Better integration between PX4/microROS/ROS2.
  While I wish to totally adapt ROS2, I still find myself using MAVROS on ROS1 Melodic occasionally to take advantage of better support.

[jacob-CyberB]

Hi all!

• Name and affiliation?

Jacob Yaacubov, Mechanical Engineer & ROS developer
Work at Cyber B - Arial robotics startup

• Which aerial platform do you use, autopilot and which ROS package?

We use the ardupilot (ArduCopter) as the firmware for our quad drones
with ros2 galatic via mavros and ros1 bridge
now trying to establish Micro DDS communication between the two

• What are you still missing in ROS framework for your platform and project?

i agree with @RFRIEDM also would add there is still no enough documentation on the subject on how even to start creating fully functional custom messages.
Its unclear for me (ardupilot noob) what msg are supported in micro dds with ros2,
mavros ros2 branch seems to be also under development as well but still not fully functional with ros2 humble

[RFRIEDM]

Hello @jacob-CyberB - Thanks for the interest!

Since ArduPilot hasn’t made a release with DDS support, since it’s still in development, the tutorials aren’t ready yet. For now, take a look at the README to see this list.

ardupilot/libraries/AP_DDS at master · ArduPilot/ardupilot - Use ROS 2 CLI

[AlexKlimaj]

Excited to announce Braden Wagstaff’s PX4 and ROS2 tutorial video and GitHub Repository. This is the first milestone in his summer internship to create an autonomous rover and drone using ARK Electronics hardware and open source software.

Next he will be taking PX4 uorb topics and get them published to standard ROS2 topics using the DDS bridge. From there he will start incorporating other ROS2 nodes for obstacle avoidance and path planning.

ROS2 and PX4 Tutorial | Simulated Offboard Mode

[KimMcG]

@AlexKlimaj very cool! perhaps you can show this in a new discourse thread in the aerial vehicle category about this video? This is a bit outside of the topic of this particular thread and then your video gets more exposure.

[bradstaff]

• Name and affiliation?
  Braden Wagstaff, ARK Electronics
• Which aerial platform do you use, autopilot and which ROS package?
  PX4 Autopilot, ROS2 Humble
• What are you still missing in ROS framework for your platform and project?
  Currently working on taking PX4 uorb topics coming in on DDS and publishing them to ROS2 topics. Goal is to create a package that allows anyone to use ROS2 and PX4 together without writing their own conversion nodes

[dave_santos]

Hi Kim and aerial robotics folks!

• Name and affiliation?

Dave Santos, CTO, Jalbert Aerology Lab (JAL)

• Which aerial platform do you use, autopilot and which ROS package?

Various “energy-kite” and drone platforms. Evaluating ROS.

• What are you still missing in ROS framework for your platform and project?

METAR (local weather) data integration with robotic autonomy.