Multi MAV Control

PX4 Autopilot
1

I am trying to build a multi MAV system, that can perform trajectory tracking, while:

  • Sharing all MAVs position on the network, to avoid crashes b/w MAVs.

Problem Faced

  • Unable to find a way to set a single frame of reference for all MAVs.

My Proposed Solutions

  • Using all MAVs global position, calculate the distance between vehicles and then do avoidance.
  • Put offset on local_position based on starting relative positions of MAVs.

Does PX4 already have this feature or some other way anyone could suggest?

2

I have been playing around a little bit with mavros with the same interest: mavros swarm

Making the vehicles share a single frame is tricky, as every vehicle has a separate estimator.

I have been experimenting with a few ways on dealing with this but am now leaning towards defining a shared origin where the estimator knows the local position. It is not ready, but you can see the PR here

3

In this case, I think taking feedback from the global position is better because it will not drift globally with time like local position estimate does.
Making a single local position estimator may create problem in the outdoor environment due to the communication problem between MAVs and Single estimator.