Repo consists of a base controller and advanced controllers for PX4-based drones. The advanced controllers extend the base controller. To implement an advanced controller, use advanced_controller and advanced_cmd_line.
The code is set up to switch between base controller and advanced controller during flight. Switching happens either manually or automatically. To manually switch, the user can use pre-defined commands in base_cmd_line and advanced_cmd_line. The code automatically switches out of the advanced controller if the drone becomes unstable (see check_security method).
To install the required packages, follow the ROS_Gazebo_PX4_Setup guide. Some information may be outdated, so check the PX4 documentation for updates. The following package versions have been successfully tested:
- PX4 - v1.12.0
- Mavros - 1.13.0
- Mavlink - release/kinetic/mavlink/2021.3.3-1 (we are running ROS melodic, but the kinetic branch is the right version for Mavlink)
To see which versions you are running, roscd <pkg> and run git branch -a. If the git head is not pointing to the same version as the one above, use git checkout tags/v<x.xx.x> to checkout the right version.
Use sitl_gazebo.launch to test the controller in Gazebo. A seperate terminal will launch, which we use to command the drone. The specified commands are found in cmd the_base_line and advanced_cmd_line files.
For experiments, we first launch offboard.launch to initialize the communication with the vehicle and then launch cmd_line.launch in a seperate termianl. The launch files are seperated, because we want to use two different terminals when ssh'ing to the drone's onboard computer.