farhang
September 9, 2025, 7:01pm
1
2025-09-10T15:00:00Z List of all Dronecode events
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The PX4 DevSummit you all were waiting for
CFPs are closed!!! Reviews in progress!!!
The Dronecode Foundation is thrilled to announce that the PX4 Developer Summit will return in 2025, this November 10-11 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park....
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Working out a more concise way of sharing flight testing updates. Flight tests required still are welcomed on the project board.
We are going to be promoting the release branch to stable, and push a stable release ASAP.
v1.16 Release Discussion
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Release notes here as well → Releases · PX4/PX4-Autopilot · GitHub
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PRs:
https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/pull/25012
Discussion:
Optimizing or reducing CI triggers
Hey guys,
I would like to talk about my draft PR on Rocket support integration in PX4.
main ← Overlord6644:GRID-Rocket
opened 01:06PM - 09 Sep 25 UTC
### Solved Problem :
When developing rocket-plane hybrid vehicles, PX4 lacked… the necessary flight modes and control allocation capabilities to handle the unique phases of rocket flight (boost, coast, apogee, ...). The existing framework couldn't dynamically reconfigure control surfaces during flight transitions or provide specialized rocket flight modes.
For the sake of simplicity and my lack of knowledge of the codebase. I didn't explore the way to create a custom airframe type like FW or MC for rocket and tried to switch from this custom type to FW mid flight.
Also the Flight Mode that I added are mainly for visual purpose on QGC and use the same control flag has a default FW airframe because I didn't know how to correctly create new flight or nav mode with a custom airframe type.
> [!NOTE]
> I'm creating this PR hoping that someone can take it as a base to do a better job than me at implementing Rocket support in PX4.
Also look only for the commits after the 11.08.2025 by myself. The base codebase was from the v1.16.0 tag.
### Solution :
-Add Rocket Mode Manager: New module that manages flight phase transitions for Rockets.
-Add Rocket Flight Modes: Implemented ROCKET_PASSIVE and ROCKET_ROLL flight modes for specialized rocket control.
-Add Dynamic Control Allocation: Runtime reconfiguration of control surface matrices (CA_TRQ) and types (CS_TYPE) based on flight phase.
(This is a little bit messy but works so if you go look the Rocket-Plane airframe in ROMFS basically I'm using the control allocation to limit the control only for Roll during ascent and to add and reconfigure actuator after wings deployement for a typical plane.)
-Add Wing Deploy Function: Servo-controlled wing deployment system with RC override capability.
(This serve has a custom function that can be called in my rocket manager for automatic wings deployement at apogee.
It features also the possibility to add an RC channel to manually override the function this was implemented because of the lack of possiblity to add both an Function and an RC AUX to an PWM channel.)
-Modified Camera Trigger to add RC override capability.
(This was done because I'm using a Relay to activate my ejection charge for my parachute has a manual failsafe with an RC Channel. And because I couldn't find a easy way to set an PWM channel to act has a GPIO. I used the already built-in logic of camera trigger.
Would be nice to have a Relay function like on Ardupilot : https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-relay.html)
-Added Rocket-Plane airframe : It's an airframe with a lot of prebuilt param to minimise the change to be done through QGC.
### Test coverage :
Flight tested on the 01.09.2025 with success.
Only an error on the control allocation that resulted on the roll control contributing to roll instead of countering it during ascent (1 instead of -1).
Otherwise the custom rocket module detected all flight state and correctly deployed the wings. (See logs prints)
And the parachute deployed successfully on RC command.
Flight log : https://logs.px4.io/plot_app?log=a42ec2c9-9cca-4b5b-b263-ac59173a09f3
### Context :
Used with an custom airframe acting has a Rocket-plane that glide after after apogee.
Built for the GRID at HEIA-FR university in Fribourg Switzerland.
Here some photos :
YT Shorts with slowmo :
[](https://youtube.com/shorts/gnVqcnw27SI?si=cCw5Bxzs3ZFryxUN)
Thanks
The PX4 DevSummit you all were waiting for
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