October 21, 2020
Agenda
- Status update by component/project
- Roadmap, and Release discussion
- Community Q&A
- In-Depth discussions
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Meeting ID: 946 175 205
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Component update
System Architecture
Decide over rename like discussed in last dev call
Publish on GitHub for visibility?
OS / NuttX
@david_s5 Working branch for NuttX version 10.0.0. There’s a couple of issues left some are fixed already. The main issue was with serial baud rates that were broken. The serial issues should be solved within days. The remaining issue e.g. is Durandal not booting.
Advantage: Dynamic file allocation in RAM generally saving RAM. Slightly faster, slightly smaller flash.
Disadvantage: Work on getting the expected stability.
Driver
There has been a LightWare distance sensor driver by @bkueng.
Commander
Until now: home gets set on takeoff
New: home can get set in air and if there was position information since the takeoff it is backcomputed to the original location
Estimation
No updates
VTOL
No updates
Fixed Wing
No updates
Multicopter
Avoid yawing 180° when pausing/switching to hold with a high speed.
Yaw setpoint issue when not setting a yaw setpoint for the position controller, two possible approaches to solve it:
Rover
@bperseghetti was looking into an easy build suggestion to build a rover platform that is easier than starting from an RC car and cheaper than 1-2k$. A lot of people just use Offboard mode and Roboclaw motor drivers. This would be a valid alternative.
Skid steer plugins are not producing accurate dynamics. It would be nice to have an accurate skid steer plugin.
Avoidance
No updates
Simulation
Contribution of a UUV vehicle in gazebo.
MAVSDK
New release check it out at
MAVROS / DDS / ROS2
No technical updates
Preparing presentations for our participation at the ROS world.
Check out the schedule: https://roscon.ros.org/world/2020/
UAVCAN
Air (differential pressure, airspeed sensor report) data types PR. A lot of conversation going on.
Feedback is appreciated.
Release
Next will likely be 1.11.2 now/soon with battery migration fixes.
Should the HTE fix be ported?
Upcoming:
@LorenzMeier AUX/MAIN IO/FMU output switching “which is which” confusion.
Original design decision: Route main outputs through second IO MCU for safety reasons. As the industry and also our project matured e.g. in terms of reliability it seems to generate more problems than it increases safety. It’s possible to switch the two outputs manually but we have to be careful with the default to not switch it and break adopters existing builds.
@dagar Would prefer that the default doesn’t matter much but the outputs are configurable in an easy way and are therefore flexible.
Main points:
- Make outputs configurable independent of the actual output e.g. FMU, IO, CAN, …
- Label the boards in a clear way such that the user knows which output is which
- Have a good way to save and transport the output configuration to be able to create a useful UI
Community Q&A
-
@JingerZ In the last two weeks some community members wanted to start a workgroup around security. What’s a good way to get that started? At the end of one of the calls, discussion came to a secure bootloader. A lot of people/companies want that. Are they willing to contribute?
@bperseghetti knows people who would definitely push it and make it happen but they asked about alignment first such that it’s not just their own thing but shared in the project.
@rroche let’s schedule a call with a clear goal to set the requirements and set up the workgroup. -
stkar: Is new to the community and is interested in using PX4 in certified operations and likes to get -certification efforts and discussion going.
@LorenzMeier PX4 is used in certified operations already. Type certification with the FAA does not contain code rules but relies on flight hours, dealing with failsafe, geofence of an entire system of a certain manufacturer. That said he sees the value in software verification.
stkar (Tarkan) is interested in discussing fault trees, risk assessment and documentation of these topics. He realized for higher weight categories in Canada there is a burden to certify systems and he’s interested to contribute to make that easier. Tarkan will join Slack and we’ll continue the dicussion.
Dev call platform
Move away from Zoom for 4. November. We will likely switch to Microsoft Teams, Google Meets or Jitsi. The goal is to lower any pain to participate
30. October is the open source summit conference
We have discount coupons for the tickets.
In-Depth discussions
Errata and Feedback
Let me know below if we failed to capture anything the right way, and if there are any updates (not present here), or you have feedback you would like to share with the dev-team.