Virginia Tech - web drone platform development

<center> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/52VgpvD.jpg" alt="drawing" height="350"/> <h1>Virginia Tech - web drone platform development</h1> </center> **Contents:** [TOC] # Proposal Work on top of actual codebase and vehicles to add new features that enhance the overall capabilities of the current platform # Goals ## Initial phase - Being able to control multiple drones - Add mission capabilities - Add geofence - Store and manage collected images of detections performed - Video streaming - Improve network failure management with status messages and automatic reconnection ## Satellite phase - State of the art for satellite communication - Add iridium support for satellite communication including telemetry, vehicle control and video stream - Being able to switch comms channel (Mobile/Satellite) smoothly # Rate and budget US$190 / day of development ($3.8k / month) Invoice is sent every 30th day of each month :::info **Note:** Expected amount of days won't neccessarily match real development schedule, this is an estimated proposal ::: # Tasks ## Initial phase 1. Adding capability to control multiple drones at the same time *(20 days)* a. Software re-structure to handle messaging b. UI/UX to manage multiple vehicles c. Testing and QA 2. Adding geofence - security control system to avoid drone go stray *(5 days)* a. UI/UX to set and edit geofence b. Display on map 3. Adding capability to send series of waypoints (mission) *(20 days)* a. UI/UX to create/edit/delete and store missions b. Upload and download mission c. Display current mission on map d. Testing and QA 4. Adding capability to view collected images and adding location of detected target of interest on map *(15 days)* a. Create special module to store and handle collected images with location b. Gather images/metadata onboard and send to special module c. UI/UX to view and manage images and display on map 5. Adding streaming webcam *(15 days)* a. Setup (install and configure) Janus webrtc server b. Create video component and room management system c. Integrate to platform 6. Automatic reconnection in case of failure. Remove manual operator commands input requirements *(5 days)* a. Further development of the onboard 3G/4G network :::info **Note:** From point 2 and on, everything will be designed to be compatible with multiple vehicle control ::: :::warning **Estimate:** 4 months for US$15,200 ::: ## Satellite phase 1. Develop software to connect to iridium modem to send data to the cloud server 2. Develop a messaging system that can be used via satellite network (check interface with IRIDIUM API) 3. Evaluate capability to send images via iridium 4. Develop interface on the server side to accept data from iridium and store data of interest 5. Develop connection selection logic (Mobile/Satellite) :::info **Note:** ...still needs further reading to reduce technical uncertainties and estimate time ::: :::info **Note:** The development can be conducted without the need of a UAV platform. Basically a Pi4 with an iridium modem attached and a pixhawk. Nevertheless, we might perform tests on custom vehicles. :::