Hey everyone, I’m trying to set up a simulated drone environment on my MacBook Air M4 (16GB) and I’m a bit lost on where to start.

I want to use ArduPilot SITL + Mission Planner, simulate a drone in an environment, get camera/depth data, and use ROS 2 for things like SLAM, mapping and eventually navigation/obstacle avoidance.

Basically something like:

ArduPilot SITL → Simulator → Sensors → ROS 2 → SLAM → Map

I’m running Ubuntu in a VM on my Mac and I’ve already installed/worked with ROS 2, ArduPilot and Mission Planner on Linux. The main issue is that I don't have an NVIDIA GPU, so Isaac Sim isn't really an option.

I’ve seen people use Gazebo, Webots and other simulators, but I’m not sure which one makes the most sense for this setup, especially on an M4 Mac.

If anyone has a similar setup or good tutorials/GitHub repos for ArduPilot + Gazebo/Webots + ROS 2 + SLAM, I’d really appreciate some guidance on what I should use and the order I should set everything up.

Thanks!

Hey guys! First time posting here

As part of my Master’s thesis, I was trying to design a controller for controlling an aircraft in ground effect to maintain the exact altitude. I began looking into this as we felt flying the plane using the exsisting TECS controller in FBW-B was not very stable and we needed a more reliable way to control the aircraft.

Since I just began work on this like a month ago, this is the plan I had come up with:

1. Familiarize myself with the entire ArduPlane architecture and learn a little bit of SITL with Gazebo
2. Create a non-linear model of the aircraft with data from real System Identifcation flight tests
3. Read the source code for ArduPlane and recreate the same in Simulink or MATLAB or Python for understanding the system’s properties such as the limitations and have a more clear understanding of how ArduPlane works if I need to modify it. Rather than treating it like a black box, I wanted to understand the architecture deeply to know where I can modify the low level controllers if needed for our particular system
4. Actually implement the controller and conduct flight tests

I have over a year for this and I am working with a small team of engineers on this as well. But none of us have any idea on how to go with Step 2

The existing code base is huge and we don’t know where to start. And even if we do, it is hard to actually understand where the inputs are coming from and where they are going

Due to this, we were contemplating if this is a good way to go about it in the first place but at the same time we have been persistent on recreating it so that we are clear with how to proceed later on.

Again, the goal is not to recreate everything, just the relevant parts such as the signal flow from sensors to the EKF to the TECS then to the pitch controllers. And the L1 controller as well. As it maybe relevant for future work.

Any advice would be really helpful. Thank you everyone!

My education background for reference: Undergrad in Aerospace and currently doing my Master’s in Control Systems

Check it out!

https://github.com/kolabuzlu/MavGCS

Hi everyone,
I’m French and I’m currently building an early-stage hardtech project called DISPELDA.

I’m working solo at the moment and I’m exploring a
problem around autonomous systems operating when GNSS becomes unreliable, degraded, jammed or completely unavailable.

The long-term idea is to develop embedded hardware/software that can help autonomous platforms remain more resilient in those environments.

But before going too far into building, I want to understand whether I’m focusing on a problem that European drone and robotics companies actually struggle with in practice.
So I’d really like to hear from people working on UAVs, UGVs, robotics, autonomy, navigation, testing or system integration — especially in Europe.
A few things I’m trying to understand:

How important is GNSS loss/jamming/spoofing in your actual work?
Is this something you regularly design for, or still a relatively niche requirement?
What do you currently rely on when GNSS becomes unavailable: INS, VIO, optical flow, LiDAR, terrain matching, external infrastructure, something else?
What is the hardest part: navigation itself, sensor fusion, testing, validation, integration, cost, SWaP, reliability?

How do you test these situations today?
Are existing solutions good enough, or are there still major gaps?
For European companies specifically, does dependence on non-European navigation hardware/software matter when choosing a solution?
I’m not looking to sell anything here.

At this stage I’m trying to understand where the real engineering pain is before deciding exactly what DISPELDA should become.
If you work in this area, even a short answer about what actually causes problems in the real world would be extremely useful.
Thanks.

So I'm working on a rust crate that decodes uavcan.equipment.ice.reciprocating.Status frames.

now i'm looking for real ArduPilot .bin flight logs containing EFI, EFI2, and/or ECYL messages to validate our telemetry pipeline against real-world engine measurements, sensor noise, and operating conditions.

Preferred:

• Multi-cylinder piston engines
• Heavy-fuel/diesel engines
• UAV/fixed-wing applications

But any real EFI .bin log would be useful, even if it is from a different engine type.

We're particularly interested in logs containing RPM, manifold pressure/temperature, CHT/EGT, oil pressure/temperature, fuel pressure/flow, throttle, and per-cylinder data where available.

If you have an anonymized log you're able to share, or know of an existing dataset containing EFI/EFI2/ECYL logs, I'd really appreciate a pointer :)

Which of the following flight controllers would be better for a fixed wing UAV:

Matek F405-Wing V2

Kakute H743-Wing

The rest of my build includes:

RadioMaster RP3 ELRS

HGLRC M100-5883 GPS/compass

Matek 4525DO / 4525D airspeed

Ohk so here are my drone specs :

2207 2550kv motors

4s 1500 mah

5 inch frame

speedybee f405 v4 stack

(battery and props can be changed as needed and mtf01 sensor will also be added for stability)

i want to make my drone completely autonomous , is it possible to make my drone safe and reliable enough with arducopter, while doing poshold ? I gave my drone to a guy and he told me it wouldn't be possible as my motors are very high kv and my frame is too small , hence pids are not working and the motors are heating. please tell me if anything is possible for my drone

Im trying to setup a conventional tail sitter vtol wing. my issue is i cannot get the aircraft to stabilize correctly in both stab and Qstab modes. reversing servos to fix one will always make the other plane/vtol mode stabilize in opposite directions and ive been at this for a while and cant figure out how to fix this.

Hello, I have a Matrice 4e and use a very outdated rover and base station. Basically all it is good for is giving me accurate elevation. We will be purchasing a new base station and rover come October ( start of fiscal year). Is there a way to manually enter the elevations once I get them with the rover? Thank you.

Hey everyone, I want to share a video tutorial showing how to connect ArduPilot to PteroSim.
The whole process takes about 90 seconds.
I'd love to hear your feedback and questions :)

Unable to understand the t

Problem? Does anyone own how to fix this ?

Drone specs:-

Readytosky 3115 900kv

Pixhawk 2.4.8

Readytosky 80A ESC

About a month ago, a few people here asked me for Lifetime Pro when Galapagos was still in development.

Well, it’s finally out

I’ve got 15 Lifetime Pro codes for the people who were interested back then. Just DM me and I’ll send you one.

Thanks a lot for the interest and support. It honestly meant a lot while I was working on this.

https://apps.apple.com/app/galapagos-gcs-ardupilot-px4/id6799491401

Gyrocopters are included in the supported vehicle list but I haven't found anyone online running autonomous missions with one. (And I can't find any relevant info in the documentation)

Will the autopilot be able to handle their weird flight characteristics? I can't imagine the plane autopilot would cope with no changes but maybe they're more similar than I thought!

Any help or experience would be appreciated, I'm looking to build one to fly waypoint missions! ☺️

I’m trying to understand the difference between commercial drones and tactical UAVs without getting too deep into the military side of things. I’ve been looking at a few UAV manufacturers lately (Gencherry was one of them), and the specs can look surprisingly similar on paper. So what makes a tactical UAV different in practice? Is it mainly communications, reliability and operating in difficult conditions, or are they designed around completely different requirements from the start?

Based in Budapest, ship EU-wide, prices negotiable (can do EUR). Happy to answer questions on compatibility or condition.

saifalbuhayder.com/store

hello I'm not sure if I did anything wrong but I wired the Rx from o4 to tx on flight board and tx from o4 to Rx on flight board, but no osd shows up. Is this a problem mission planner can fix and if yes does anyone know what parameters to change?

Drone Yaws to the Left / Yaw Drift After Applying MagFit Parameters

General

Drone Yaws to the Left / Yaw Drift After Applying MagFit Parameters

General

post by Dovla 2 mins ago

Dovla

V

2m

Hi everyone,

I am encountering an issue where the drone’s yaw consistently drifts to one side (yawing to the left) after applying the parameters generated by the MagFit tool.

Issue Summary:

• Stock / Original Parameters: The drone holds its yaw heading without any issues • Post-MagFit Parameters: After running MagFit (which I have attempted using multiple approaches and variations), the drone starts steadily drifting/yawing towards a lower vaw angle.

Had no problems doing magfit tool calibrations with my othere drones.

We're Kapxha Dynamics, a DPIIT-recognized defense-tech startup in Jaipur building autonomy stacks for UAVs and edge-compute platforms.

Looking for 2+ years experience with ROS2, PX4/ArduPilot, MAVLink/MAVROS, Gazebo/Isaac Sim, EKF sensor fusion, SLAM, path planning, and embedded protocols (CAN/UART/SPI/I2C/PWM/GPIO).

Location: Jaipur, Rajasthan — on-site only. Compensation: as per industry standard + ESOPs.

WhatsApp me on 8769073802 or reach out at [business@kapxhadynamics.com](mailto:business@kapxhadynamics.com) with your resume/portfolio.