AVR-VMC-Visual-Module

The Visual Inertial Orientation (VIO) module is responsible for capturing data from the stereoscopic tracking camera, and converting it into global-ish coordinates.

This module considers wherever it is started as "0,0,0" and thus the drone's movements are relative to that. Because PX4 only thinks in global coordinates, this module then uses a hardcoded latitude and longitude to convert the data into global coordinates. They're not true global coordinates, however, as they’re still relative to where it was started.

This module is the core of the AVR "secret sauce" to enable GPS-denied stabilized flight.

Development

It's assumed you have a version of Python installed from python.org that is the same or newer as defined in the Dockerfile.

First, install Poetry and VS Code Task Runner:

python -m pip install pipx --upgrade
pipx ensurepath
pipx install poetry
pipx install vscode-task-runner
# (Optionally) Add pre-commit plugin
poetry self add poetry-pre-commit-plugin

Now, you can clone the repo and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/bellflight/AVR-VMC-Visual-Module
cd AVR-VMC-Visual-Module
vtr install

Run

poetry shell

to activate the virtual environment.

Notes

ZED camera config files are stored in /usr/local/zed/settings/. This directory should be persisted via a bind-mount.