# Use lidar for localization instead of Qvio

Source: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/4870/use-lidar-for-localization-instead-of-qvio
Category: Development Drones (https://forum.modalai.com/category/44/development-drones)
Tags: starling
Posted: 2025-11-14 16:25:31 UTC by Muqing Cao
Replies: 5 · Views: 648

## Muqing Cao · 2025-11-14 16:25:31 UTC

About using another state estimation source, we would like to replace the onboard qvio with some lidar based odometry for localization and position hold purpose. Say we can get lidar-based position estimate in ROS message, can we disable the onboard VIO and feed our position estimate to the onboard flight controller through MAVROS or something else? 
Please advise!

## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-14 17:56:31 UTC

@Muqing-Cao Yes, definitely. The applications are auto started using systemd services and can be stopped / disabled using standard commands as desired.

## Reply by Muqing Cao · 2025-11-14 18:15:23 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey)

@Eric-Katzfey Thanks for your reply. Can we have more details about the interface we could use to feed position estimate?

## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-14 18:51:14 UTC (in reply to Muqing Cao)

@Muqing-Cao Just the standard Mavlink ODOMETRY message is what we have used. Not exactly sure how that translates into ROS land. But it isn't anything ModalAI specific.

## Reply by Muqing Cao · 2025-11-14 19:38:35 UTC (in reply to Eric Katzfey)

@Eric-Katzfey Thank you. Could you lead me to the part of the code that sends the odometry mavlink msg in voxl sdk? That would be very helpful.

## Reply by Eric Katzfey (ModalAI staff) · 2025-11-14 22:13:25 UTC (in reply to Muqing Cao)

@Muqing-Cao Here you go: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-vision-hub/-/blob/dev/src/vio_manager.c?ref_type=heads#L450