Setup instructions: PX4 SITL (v1.7.3) (OLD)

These instructions are for UAL versions up to v3.1 and support only PX4 v1.7.3

If you intend to use software in the loop with PX4 (for example, to simulate in Gazebo), you also need the PX4 repository. To clone it with all its submodules:

$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/PX4/Firmware.git
$ cd Firmware
$ git checkout -f v1.7.3
$ git submodule update --recursive

Extra dependencies for PX4:

$ sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler python-jinja2 python-pip
$ sudo pip install numpy toml

Compiling PX4:

$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/Firmware
$ make
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/Firmware
$ make posix_sitl_default gazebo
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make

*It may ask you for updating the subrepositories. If that happens, select 'u' and continue.

You should be seeing a SITL simulation in Gazebo, but this is not what we want as it's not within ROS, so kill it and then...

$ roslaunch uav_abstraction_layer test_server.launch

Congratulations, you have it all running!

Now you can control this uav navigation through QGroundControl or using its mavros interface. On top of this mavros interface, we have built a part of the uav_abstraction_layer package, have a look!

QGroundControl

In order to use QGroundControl with a radio telemetry connection, we need to do this:

$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
$ sudo apt-get remove modemmanager