Main/99 Work/0 OneSec/OneSecNotes/Temporary/Software Planning - 11-2023.md

General

Development Process

• Docker Based Development
  • Development Containers Build docker container for all engineers to work on the exact same code
    • include simulation with gazebo, px4, and always the same ROS version.
    • very easy to setup for new engineers.
  • Testing Containers:
    • SITL testing container
      • runs on gitlab (does not contain visual simulation)
      • does not contain development tools nor build tools
    • HITL testing container
      • use a real drone to do HITL simulation testing
      • uses our real hardware
• Automated Testing
  • Software
    • Have unit tests for everything
    • Have integration tests that run in docker simulated environment
    • Have hooks that use gitlab to run the tests
    • Improve on model used in simulation (control engineer)
    • connect unity with gazebo
  • Hardware
    • Future: have a space where drone can actually perform automated tests (hook takeoff)
• Drone Software version managing
  • One overall version
  • contains subversions for all different systems, including hardware and software.
  • ESC firmware & configuration file
  • OSD-software version & confiugration
    • What exact software version of ROS2 do we use?
  • PX4-software version & configuration

Drone

Low Level

Sensors

• Pitot Tube (PX4)
  • probably fast (plug and play)
  • most work is integrating it into our flight stack in px4 --> control engineer
• ublox driver (ROS)
  • Add unit tests
  • Add meta data publishing (how is it usually done in ros)
  • Add service to get health status message
  • Add configuration parameters
  • make sure correct firmware is on gnss module
  • track antenna: does it work properly?
• LTE Driver (ROS)
  • improve driver to have access to meta data (to be sure about connectivity)
  • Make sure that VPN works flawlessly
  • Or another way to work with the ground station server
  • make sure correct firmware is on module
  • track antenna: does it work properly?
  • SIM management
• Temperature and Humidity Driver (ROS)
  • share sensor message at certain frequency
  • have configuration parameters
• BMS Driver (ROS)
  • share raw bms sensor data to the ROS message bus
  • have configuration parameters
  • have services for recalibration, changing charging settings, and others
• Parachute system
  • PX4 Heartbeat signal & driver (PX4)
  • ROS action to trigger parachute (can also be done remotely)
• Optical flow
  • make sure that it is well calibrated

Other Hardware

• ESC:
  • make sure correct firmware is running
  • observe temperature and current
  • feedback message to ROS system
• parachute board
  • observe parachute state (GPIO available)
  • share with ROS system
  • share with Ground control station
    • at what location and what time has the parachute been triggered?
    • has the deployment been successful?
• Magnetic sensor board
  • Add calibration routine --> we want to very easily
• Payload
  • Payload manager:
    • detect payload
    • estimate properties of payload (weight, center of mass, etc.)
    • share properties to control system and battery manager
    • Payload ejection action (ROS2)
    • payload reception action (ROS2)
• LED system
  • LED control (ROS2 message to turn on / off)
  • have a smart camera control instance to synchronize the LEDs with the caputring of the camera system
  • Driver for different LEDs
    • IR, White via I2C
    • Armpit LEDs
    • User Feedback LED
  • user feedback LED
    • different color / blink codes
    • write different actions to request a sequence to be played
• Buzzer
  • parachute auto buzzer
  • user feedback buzzer

Control

• integrate all flaps
• integrate state of payloadbay into model
• make a detailed and well tested model of drone that can be used in the simulation to accelerate development
• integrate variable pitch into the control
• actuators
  • 2 virt swash
  • 2 variable pitch
  • 4 flaps
  • payload bay
  • payload ejector
• Sensors
  • pitot tube
  • optical flow
• move to px4 v1.14 --> means control allocation instead of mixers
  • allows to more effectively use all actuators simultaneously
  • every actuator is defined by forces that it can deliver and thus this system manages a single actuator failure much better than the mixer system
  • also allows much better ros2 integration with px4
• Achieve <10cm hover accuracy
• Achieve efficient cruise flight
• Achieve reliable transition in both directions
• Integrate new S-Rod
• Integrate new single blade propeller

Other Low Level

• remote ID implementation

High Level

OSD-Autopilot

• Settings Manager
  • Have one common place to change all settings in the entire system
  • change PX4 settings through the settings manager
  • use setting files that define all settings
• Battery estimator
  • use raw data from BMS and mission data from groundstation/px4
  • how much flight time is left?
    • at hover
    • at cruise
    • empty vs full
  • can I get to the homeport safely?
  • how much charging do we expect at the next restaurant?
    • needs communication with groundstation and high level planning
• Navigation library
  • A* planning algorithm (copy Jerrys implementation)
    • unit tests
    • integration tests
  • Well tested controller-plugin
    • Enables us to do trajectory tracking well
    • probably offload to px4
      • thus calculate a trajectory (includes derivatives like velocity, acceleration jerk and time based points) from a path that we know is feasible for our drone
  • Costmap3D / Fruxelgrid
    • make sure obstacles are well defined in 3d space includi
    • write proper test functions
    • make API to get information about the world
    • Add some sort of memory (buffer? derivative?)
      • Is an object moving towards me?
      • Basically we should be able to detect if someone throws a stone at the drone and avoid the stone.
      • Get inspired by StuffMadeHere trajectory estimation (basketball video or others) to estimate a trajectory of an approaching object
  • Write more complex behaviors
    • Hook landing
    • Hook takeoff
    • Flat surface Delivery
    • Ask for pilot assistance
• Climate Manager
  • Data sources
    • use raw data from temperature sensors
    • use camera data (through future FruxelGrid updates)
  • control heating wires in propeller blades and leading edge of the wing
• Log Manager
  • Improve Logging: use C++ instead of python
  • unify px4-logs with rosbags
  • is there a better logging method than rosbags?
  • share low bandwidth log data to groundstation to live plotting with plotjuggler or similar
• Bringup manager:
  • Make sure that the entire software stack is running after boot
  • run a few hardware / software tests periodically to be sure that everything is running as it should be.
• Camera Node:
  • detect if a camera is down
  • action to capture an image to a file (maybe used to confirm delivery)
• Hailo Node:
  • hef-file manager
  • plugin based neural nets?
    • change nets at runtime
  • Meta data publishing
  • health data publishing
• Destination finder
  • panorama to location converter

Other High Level

• Tele operation node, such that we can use a remote control over LTE instead of radio
• Demo library
  • Demos are basically just another behaviortree with some user interaction

Groundstation

• interface to single drone:
  • communicate new job (incl. job-id)
  • get updates on job
  • encrypted communication (ROS? UDP? MAVLINKV2?)
  • get flight logs continously
    • throttled
• Fleet management:
  • every drone has UID
    • and all details stored with it:
      • current version number (hardware and software)
      • what type of rasperry pi (UID)
  • LTE simcard management
  • RTK correction stream management
  • maintenance history of every drone
  • flight log history of every drone
  • current status of every drone
  • how many drones are in the air right now?
  • map with all drones: color coded which ones are flying, color coded which ones are unhealthy
• Interface to Delivery app, delivery software, etc.
  • deciding function if a delivery is possible according to panoramic image (people in the loop?)
• routing software
  • incoming jobs: which drone should do what job
• delegation software
  • how to delegate pilot assistance requests to free pilots?

OneSec Server

• log server
  • automatic logupload (px4, rosbag, images?)
  • daily, weekly, monthly... report in jupyter --> pdf or html
  • dashboard with number of deliveries / number of flighthours, etc.
  • debug tools
    • download specific log
    • compare all logs of the same vehicle
• maintenance server
  • scheduled and unscheduled maintenance server
  • detailed instructions (including videos and checklists) on how to do maintenance / debugging / fault finding
  • email notifications if scheduled maintenance is needed
• Business Operations
  • Delivery App / interface to uber eats
  • Customer database, handling, etc
    • address
    • precise GNSS coordinates after first delivery
    • panorama image before first delivery (encrypted?)
    • multiple delivery locations

Pilot Interface

• reliability
  • dual power supply
  • dual internet provider
  • make sure machine is powerful enough
• security:
  • make sure that some sort of encryption is happening
• Teleoperation
• visual confirmation
• high resolution map with precise coordinates
• interface:
  • to choose delivery location on map
  • to choose delivery polygons on map