[FeatureRequest] Display Companion Status on QGC

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

Flying avoidance more often these days, having a companion status display would be much convenient on checking if the companion computer is running properly.

Currently only a text message (Avoidance system Connected / Avoidance System Lost) is displayed, and results as the following.

• The message can be lost sometimes when you relaunch qgc
• The message floods the message box as it repeatedly displayed as connected / disconnected whenever there is a glitch in the network
• We need to wait for the companion to be up and running before using avoidance, where the only indicator is Avoidance System Connected

Discussed in https://discuss.px4.io/t/most-wanted-qgc-features/7031/36 with @DonLakeFlyer

Suggestion:
It would be great if the companion status can be displayed in the top bar with a color code showing the status of the companion. This would greatly enhance the visibility of the status of the companion.

[LorenzMeier]

@baumanta How are we looking in terms of specs for this? We need to have a clear idea which fields need to go in there.

[hamishwillee]

@LorenzMeier Spec appears to have stabilised: mavlink/mavlink#1186

It needs to be rebased, but IMO is good to be merged.

[jkflying]

This is missing a few things now to get to a basic working point

• ROS node which gathers data and sends it to MAVROS - https://github.com/Auterion/system_monitor_ros - still in early stages
• MAVROS plugin to send the new ONBOARD_COMPUTER_STATUS message - onboard_computer_status message and plugin mavros#1286 - waiting on MAVLink release to merge
• QGC integration to show populated system, maybe similar to GPS status? @yasendimov maybe you have some idea of how it should look?

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

PX4 Firmware now supports handling and logging the onboard computer status messages as of PX4/PX4-Autopilot#13169