Build a drone simulator environment and try a simple flight with Mission Planner

Introduction

Overview

Drones have become very familiar in the last few years, but full-scale drones are expensive and difficult to purchase. So, here's how to run the drone in a simulator and check it on Linux. This article presents the shortest route.

environment

• Ubuntu 18.04

Installation target

• Ardupilot SITL
• MissionPlanner

MissionPlanner is a Windows version, but it can also be run on Linux Mono. The operation is a little unstable, but since it is reasonable to check the operation, I dare to use it on Linux this time. For full-scale operation of Mission Planner, we recommend the Windows version.

Reference site

• https://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/building-setup-linux.html#building-setup-linux
• https://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/setting-up-sitl-on-linux.html#setting-up-sitl-on-linux
• https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/running-mission-planner-on-linux/19100/13

Construction procedure

Simulator (SITL) installation

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install git
$ sudo apt-get install gitk git-gui

$ cd ~
$ git clone https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot
$ cd ardupilot
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

$ Tools/environment_install/install-prereqs-ubuntu.sh -y
$ . ~/.profile

~/.Add path to bashrc
$ vi ~/.bashrc
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/ardupilot/Tools/autotest
export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH

Simulator start

$ cd ~
$ cd ardupilot/ArduCopter
$ sim_vehicle.py -w --console --map

Install GCS (Mission Planner)

$ cd ~
$ sudo apt-get install mono-complete
$ wget http://firmware.ardupilot.org/Tools/MissionPlanner/MissionPlanner-latest.zip
$ unzip MissionPlanner-latest.zip -d MissionPlanner

Start GCS (Mission Planner)

$ ~
$ cd MissionPlanner
$ mono MissionPlanner.exe

A message box will be displayed at startup, but proceed.

Press the OK button.

Press the NO button.

Tips

For Japanese fonts, the font of the upper icon of Mission Planner may not be visible.
In that case, the spanner mark (Configuration)Press and change the UI Language to English(United States)Please change to.

Operation check

Connection from GCS (Mission Planner) to SITL

The simulator (SITL) can be accessed from GCS on the following ports.

• TCP : 127.0.0.1 : port 5762
• UDP : port 14550

For TCP

Selection of connection method

Select [Connection Method] TCP at the top right of the GCS (Mission Planner) screen and press the CONNECT icon.

Enter host IP address and port number

For UDP

Selection of connection method

Select [Connection Method] UDP at the top right of the GCS (Mission Planner) screen and press the CONNECT icon.

Enter port number

Screen after connection is completed

The connection is complete when the icon on the upper right turns green.

Operation check from Mission Planner

Confirmation flow

1. Start (ARM)
2. Takeoff
3. Move
4. Landing

1. Start (ARM)

Press the Actions tab. Confirm that Guided is displayed in the red square part. (For other than Guided, select Guided from the select box on the left side of the SetMode button and press the SetMode button.) After pressing the Arm / Disarm button in the red circle, "ARMED" is displayed in the blue circle. "ARMED" will return to "DISARM" after a while.

2. Takeoff

Ascending instruction

In the "ARMED" state, do the following:

Right-click on the map and execute Take Off.

Set altitude

It is OK if the altimeter is 4 to 5 m.

3. Move

Specify the destination

Right-click on the map where you want to move and press Fly To Here.

Altitude designation

Specify the altitude.

The move will start.

4. Landing

Set mode to Land

After selecting Land in the red circle select box, press the blue circle SetMode button. Confirm that the red square part is the Land display. The altitude gradually decreases.

Landing confirmation

Confirm that the altitude becomes 0m and the display is DISARMED.

The above is the minimum flight confirmation of the drone.

If you want to do it again, start from 1. Start (ARM).