VOXL2 HITL Sim with Gazebo in Docker - VTOL frame support
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good afternoon,
I am working on enabling a standard vtol simulation in gazebo using voxl2 and a px4 docker provided by modalai. I am on Ubuntu 22.04. A few issues have come up and I wonder if they are caused by voxl or px4. I assume it is voxl, but I wanted to verify.
In short, when attempting transition I get "vehicle did not respond to command MAV_CMD_DO_VTOL_TRANSITION." I wonder if anyone has had this problem before.
Why i suspect voxl and not px4 is because it seems like docker is hard coded for quad frames. For instance, to be able to run docker for a vtol frame I had to modify "run_gazebo.bash" script. Specifically, loading "worlds/hitl_standard_vtol.world". Also, I had to modify .sdf file for standard_vtol_hitl frame to change serial device to ttyUSB0. Moreover, when I selected "standard_vtol_HITL"in QGroundControl-> Airframe, the mavlink inspector was showing Heartbeat -> type = 2 (quadcopter). I manually adjusted that by changing MAV_TYPE = 22 (VTOL with separate fixed rotors for hover and cruise flight), however, my vehicle still won't transition.
Another suspicious point is that none of the VTOL parameters (VT_*) are showing and standard vtol frame is not getting any airspeed data (as far as I understand, there is no pitot tube model).
Thus I was wondering:
- does voxl2 supports standard_vtol_hitl simulation ?
- am I missing any steps to enable transition in my vehicle?
here is some of the flight logs:
- https://logs.px4.io/plot_app?log=3f05d334-5adb-43de-a62c-5054da1f913d
- https://logs.px4.io/plot_app?log=0f9c3c8b-f67f-404d-be26-538bfb37ffdc
- https://logs.px4.io/plot_app?log=14d3c6a4-3168-4bef-a989-9414fa19c5bf
log breakdown: uploaded mission, took off, refused to proceed to transition after takeoff, tried forcing transition, refused to transition, forced to land
Note: i am also having an issue with baro and mag timing out, so that may show up in the logs. if anyone knows how to solve that - help would be appreciated, but that is not a main point of concern right now
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@garret We have not tried anything but quadcopter and I'm not aware of anyone else trying anything other than quadcopter.
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@Eric-Katzfey thank you for clarifying. can you let me know if the px4 firmware on voxl2 has been modified to only accommodate quads or is it still the original firmware and should in theory be able to fly VTOL?
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@garret to clarify a little: were there any adjustments to px4 firmware on voxl2 that could result in absence of a bunch of VTOL parameters that are important for transition and/or fixed wing flight modes?
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@garret I have no idea what is necessary for VTOL but I would guess that there are probably some missing modules that you would need for that. You would need to do a custom build to bring in whatever is missing.
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@Eric-Katzfey I have started working in this direction. My current attempt is to edit default.px4board file from here: https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/blob/v1.14.0-2.0.94-dev/boards/modalai/voxl2/default.px4board. I am using this px4 version because it is the one currently on my voxl2. If you think there is a better alternative, please let me know.
I have started trying to build a firmware file but keep running into errors. Some related to incorrect versions of compilers or libraries like enum.
I was trying to find step by step firmware update instructions here: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-px4 and here https://docs.modalai.com/. First link appears to be about the voxl2 itself, which I do not want to edit, just the px4 running on it. The second only had firmware updates for voxl2io and flight core. As far as I was able to understand, those were not what I needed. Neither of the links had required libraries and compiler versions that I was able to find. ( I am running aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc and aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ version 11.4.0 at the moment)
Is there a place with proper step by step guidelines on how to do custom px4 built for voxl2 ? If not, could you please point me out in the right direction ? At least maybe a place with all the right libraries and compilers. I have never done this kind of work before, so it is just Gemini and I, but that can only take one so far
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@garret This is the documentation you need: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-px4-dev-build-guide/. As part of that this readme: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/rb5-flight/rb5-flight-px4-build-docker/-/blob/master/README.md?ref_type=heads has details on how to setup the build environment.
