PX4 driver for the ranger finder sensor

PX4 Autopilot
1

Hi there, this is Zhenyu, from Ainstein AI. We have a radar range finder sensor that has been officially support by PX4 for a while, and it is the serial port interface one. Recently we have several clients asked about the official support for the CAN interface one, so I am wondering what is the procedure for us to do it?

Our CAN interface US-D1 radar range finder sensor use the private data format, 1Mb/s bit rate, CAN 2.0B standard.

2

You need to modify your driver to listen for CAN messages. Have you tried doing this yet? If so, please send a draft pull request so we can help you.

It’s likely better if you can join one of our developer calls so we can guide you on approaching this.

3

Thanks for your response @rroche .

Is it possible for Ainstein to create a new driver for the CAN interface, and let the serial port drive as it is?

4

yes, creating a new driver is possible if that’s what you want to do

5

@rroche Thank you so much for your reply.
For CAN driver, there are two paths for Ainstein US-D1:

  1. Exclusive driver for US-D1 own private CAN protocal, like my original post.
  2. We also consider to update the US-D1 firmware to support (or compatible) DroneCAN. Since PX4 has already support DroneCAN driver, it would be OK to support US-D1 with DroneCAN protocol.

It seems like we are decided to go to the option 2, and we will evaluate whether it is still worth to do the option 1 as well. If we do, we will arrange manpower to work with PX4 team to achieve it.