Hi,

This is all down to the VIO algorithm. You'd be able to make major tweaks if you're postprocessing the data after, like detecting a reset and continuing from the last valid position (we do this in vvpx4), but changing the px4 params or other fusion techniques that only use the same sensors as the initial vio algorithm will likely not yield any improvements.

As for improving the vio algorithm itself, the QVIO's mvVISLAM package is proprietary code(even to us, we don't have the source) that we usually quote at 2% error over distance, which seems to match the test you've run here (you've flown a bit under 10 meters and it looks like you've drifted ~0.15-0.2 meters. We've been working on and experimenting with other algorithms internally, but don't have a hard date on when these will be fully tested/published. It's worth mentioning that most of our experimentation with these is to attempt to open-source our solution and add support for other features (like multiple cameras) but that generally the 2% error is considered very good especially in real-world environments.

The 2 main things you can do out of the box to ensure that your VIO is working as best it can are ensuring that it has accurate camera and imu calibrations, and that your extrinsics file is accurate.

@Sam-Kiley We don't use the RB5 SDK anymore so haven't had experience with that specific version of quectel-CM is quite some time. We have a lot of customers using 5G via. voxl-modem on the latest VOXL SDK without issues.

Hi @tom !
Thank you for your response, the issue was solved by deactivating this service.

Thank you so much

Hi Daniel, can you please clarify "Note: We have recently updated the firmware to VOXL 2 and the default RB5 firmware worked fine."?

The VOXL 2 platform image will not work properly on RB5 Flight. You need to use specific RB5 Flight software. The VOXL SDK works on both platforms, but there are low-level differences in the system image and specifically PX4 is configured differently between RB5 Flight and VOXL 2.

See this page for how to load the RB5 Flight platform image https://docs.modalai.com/Qualcomm-Flight-RB5-voxl-sdk-upgrade-guide/

@JoshRebello This is the 5G module we are using: https://www.modalai.com/collections/modems/products/quectel-rm502q-ae. This also works well with our Sentinel drone which uses our VOXL 2 board instead of the RB5 board and has better capabilities. https://www.modalai.com/pages/sentinel. Even though it doesn't have 5G in it's name it uses the same 5G modem as the RB5 based drone.

@rpaston

The Sentinel and QC Flight RB5 are drones for software development - they are a reference so ultimately so you can build your own drones from our components. From your questions, it looks like you are looking for a more complete system.

We need a 3-axis gimbal with 4K/8K camera, IR and laser rangefinder for testing. Which gimbal with 4K/8K cameras, IR and laser rangefinders are supported. Any suggestions?

No

We need precision landing on a moving base station (RTH) in wind. Does the platform have Dynamic RTH?

No

What is the IPxx rating?

None

Is the SDK open source?
Yes, see https://code.modalai.com

(based on Pixhawk/Python) and would it be compatible with Autel, Parrot or Aurelia?

The flight controller is PX4
It would not be compatible with Autel, Parrot or Aurelia

@adrianpang With regards to ArduPilot, VOXL2 is currently only able to run a version of PX4 on target. If you need ArduPilot you will have to use an external flight controller and connect it to VOXL2 with UART. We hope to have an implementation of ArduPilot that runs directly on VOXL2 in the future but there is no firm date on when this would be available.

@Sam-Kiley When on public 3G / 4G / 5G networks we use a VPN and assign fixed addresses to each system component with our VPN configuration. You should be able to do a similar thing with your 5G private network. Does your private network have a connection to the Internet or is it self contained? I don't know anything about 5G private networks but I'd be surprised if it didn't have a way to assign the same IP address to a device on the network so that you effectively have a static IP. Earlier versions of the RB5 SDK set the MAV_BROADCAST parameter in PX4 to 1 and PX4 would then use the network broadcast address to send out it's initial messages. Any QGC instance running on the network will receive that broadcast and respond so that you get automatic connection. However, this can be problematic if there are more than one instance of QGC running since you may connect to an instance that you don't want. Also, some wireless networks do not support broadcast.

@Martin-Brandt Starting the RMA process is probably the best option as opening it up yourself risks damaging other components

@mbahrami You can try that same solution, just substitute "wlan0" instead of "eth0"

Where can I find TELEM 1 port in RB5 drone?

@tom thanks! It works. I had used the same solution but a wrong partition number was the culprit.

@Moderator Unfortunately, there is not a way to configure ROS1 to use steady_clock instead of system_clock. In ROS2, it seems that this is configurable, but ModalAI does not support ROS2.

@tom I tried with UART/I2C port in Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Drone that didn't work. But it works in J1010 port of voxl flight board.

FWIW, we are not seeing this issue on the VOXL2 flightdeck (which does not use voxl-px4-imu-server)

@Moderator Is there someone else I should tag for this issue if you are unable to provide support?

@chinkey I ran a few tests yesterday. I used the speedtest-cli application with a USB dongle. In the first test I connected a USB 2.0 Ethernet dongle to my laptop and got around 90 Mbps. I then connected that dongle to the RB5 USB port and also got about 90 Mbps. I then tried a USB 3.0 Ethernet dongle. On the laptop I saw about 520 Mbps but was only able to achieve about 250 Mbps on RB5. So I think that's pretty similar to what you were seeing. It's unclear at this time why there is such a difference.

@Eric-Katzfey There is a new dev version of voxl-px4 located here: http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/dev/binary-arm64/voxl-px4_1.14.0-2.0.61-202312011240_arm64.deb. Can you wget that and then load it on top of SDK 1.1.1? You can then modify the /etc/modalai/voxl-px4.conf file to specify RC=M0065_SBUS to use M0065 with SBUS. Once you restart you should have it working with M0065 SBUS. It has received very minimal testing at this point but you are welcome to give it a shot.

@Anubhav No, the Qualcomm Flight RB5 Reference drone uses the Thundercomm QRB5165 SOM. The Sentinel has the same QRB5165 using VOXL 2 and is built with the same sensor configurations as the Qualcomm Flight RB5.

VOXL 2 has the same computing power as the Thundercomm RB5 SOM, but a much broader support for different image sensors.

Yes, the Qualcomm Flight RB5 User Guide will send you to the 5G modem user guide if you are using the latest software.

@Alex-Kushleyev Thank you very much for the solution, I fix it and it works. : )