# ROS Aerial Community Work Group


## Meeting Notes - April 17th, 2025

Forum Post: https://discourse.ros.org/t/aerial-robotics-meeting-april-17th-2025/43156/

**Hosts**
* Kimberly McGuire
* Ramón Roche

**Attendees**

_15 people joined in total_
* Rick Hernandez
* Krijn Hoogendorp
* Aatmadeep Aarya
* Wenis Belle
* Bonolo Mathibela
* Mohammad Reza Ranjbar Divkoti

## Agenda

* Announcements
* Landscape Presentation
* Discussion
* Announcement next meeting

### Announcements

* Kilted Kaiju release process
* Feature freeze since last Monday 14th
* May 1th Tutorial Party :tada:
* Time line - https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/Releases/Release-Kilted-Kaiju.html#release-timeline
* ROSCon Diversity Scholarship closes tomorrow!
* Friday April 18th
* bit.ly/ROSCon25DSP
* ROSCon deadline for contributions:
* 2nd of May deadline workshop proposals
* 5th of June deadline talk proposals
* https://roscon.ros.org/2025/
* Summer school on Multi robot systems Prague uni.
* Still accepting applications!
* July 30 - August 5, 2025
* https://mrs.fel.cvut.cz/summer-school-2025/
* Aerial Robotic landscape updates:
* MIT course on aerial robotics sources online: https://vnav.mit.edu/
* New Open hardware Omniquad added: https://tilties2.github.io/omniquad-website/
* ROS parrot mambo driver added by andriyukr
: https://github.com/TOTON95/ros_pyparrot
* Upcoming events
* 14-17 May - [ICUAS](https://uasconferences.com/2025_icuas/) in Charlotte, NC, USA
* 19-20 May - [Xponential](https://xponential.org/) in Houston, TX, USA
* 19-23 May - [ICRA](https://2025.ieee-icra.org/), Atlanta, GA, USA ([aerial robotics workshop](https://aerial-robotics-workshop-icra.com/))
* More aerial related events on the [aerial robotics landscape](https://ros-aerial.github.io/aerial_robotic_landscape/)

*Anybody has anything to share here?*
* Personal/your companies project or platfrom
* A cool project or platform from someone else
* An event related to aerial Robotics (and if you are going)

### Presentation

Kimberly McGuire
The Aerial Robotic Landscape: https://ros-aerial.github.io/aerial_robotic_landscape/


### Discussion

#### Table support questions
| Channel | Support | Discuss | Beginner | Response | Link |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ROS Discourse | no | yes | ? | high | [Link](https://discourse.ros.org/c/aerial-vehicles) |
| Robotics StackE. | yes | no | ? | low | [Link](https://robotics.stackexchange.com/) |
| Open Robotics Discord | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://discord.com/invite/RtJeHT8mXQ) |
| Multicopter Reddit | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/Multicopter/) |
| DIYdrones Reddit | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/diydrones/) |
| Ardupilot Reddit | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/ardupilot/) |
| Ardupilot Discourse | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://discuss.ardupilot.org/) |
| PX4 Discourse | yes | yes | yes | high* | [Link](https://discuss.px4.io/) |
| DroneCode Discord | yes | yes | yes | high | [Link](https://discord.gg/Dronecode) |
| Crazyflie GH discus | yes | ? | yes | high | [Link](http://discussions.bitcraze.io/) |
| Cognipilot discord | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://discord.com/invite/cognipilot) |
| Dronecan discord | ? | ? | ? | ? | [Link](https://dronecan.org/discord) |

*good formulated question

#### Discussion Transcript
Kimberly McGuire: I previously asked for input on the best way to get support in aerial robotics because I know it's hard for beginners to figure out where to ask questions, and it's also difficult for developers to keep track of all the different support channels.  
I got some suggestions for more channels, but I still don't have clarity on which ones are best for beginners versus more experienced developers.

Kimberly: I've made a chart trying to categorize channels like the PX4 Discourse and Dronecode Discord based on who they're best for (beginners/developers) and what the expected response time might be. I'm hoping we can fill this in and maybe add it to the Aerial Robotics Landscape resource.

Ramon: Regarding the PX4 Discourse and the Dronecode Discord, I think both are fine for beginners and developers.  
I would say Discord can be a bit more chaotic sometimes.  
I actually try to encourage people to ask their detailed, long-form questions on the forums first. If they don't get a response, I suggest they post a link to their forum question on Discord – that usually gets more attention.  

Ramon: As for response times, it really depends on the question. I see many people struggle with asking questions effectively in open-source communities. If you ask a very broad question or don't provide enough details, you might not get a quick response. But if the question is well-phrased and detailed, you might get an answer within 24 hours.

Alexis from chat: Can we start formulating some sort of diagram based on purpose? Like a guide tour?

Alexis: I agree that creating a guide or flowchart is complex. People come from different backgrounds, and aerial robotics itself combines so many fields like engineering, computer science, and AI. However, I think we should try to start somewhere, maybe by drafting something for a specific group or application we know well.  

Kimberly: Maybe we could hold regular "office hours"? Beginners could join, explain their background, and I (or others) could give them personalized advice on where to start.  

Alexis: Another thought – we could improve the resources available online, like the Aerial Robotics Landscape. AI chatbots learn from these resources. If we make our online information better and more comprehensive, people asking chatbots for help will eventually get better guidance. I was even surprised when I asked a chatbot about a ROS driver for GoPro and it found the one I created!

Kimberly: I understand making a single guide is hard. Someone coming from computer vision needs different advice than I did coming from mechanical engineering.   I also see a gap between beginner tools, like some simulators which might skip important steps, and what advanced developers need. There isn't always a clear path for that intermediate step.   Maybe suggesting specific online courses is an option, but the challenge is that a course might teach using one system (like ArduPilot), while the person's lab uses another (like PX4).  

Kimberly: Training a chatbot on our landscape data is an interesting idea. It's hard to say what the best approach is right now. Maybe the office hours idea isn't bad.   We have have to got to start somewheren

### Next meeting

Next meeting will be on Thursday 15th of May, 5 pm UTC.

No presentation lined up yet but will notify once we do.

Add the [ROS community event calendar ](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=c_[e-mail]&ctz=UTC)to your calendar to see our planned meetings.
We also post an announcement [Aerial Vehicles category](https://discourse.ros.org/c/aerial-vehicles/14) on ROS discourse with the [wg-aerial-robotics tag](https://discourse.ros.org/tag/wg-aerial-robotics) about one week before the meeting starts.

<iframe src="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=c_[e-mail]&ctz=UTC" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

### Want to nominate someone/yourself for a presentation?

Send us a message on the #aerial-robotics channel channel (link below) we are always looking for cool open source projects to spotlight.

**👉 Reach out to Kim / Ramón.**

### Handy Links
* [ROS Discourse wg-aerial](https://discourse.ros.org/tag/wg-aerial-robotics)
* [ROS Aerial Community Github](https://github.com/ROS-Aerial)
* [#aerial-robotics Discord Channel (Open Robotics Server)](https://discord.gg/open-robotics-1077825543698927656)
* [Aerial Robotic Landscape](https://ros-aerial.github.io/aerial_robotic_landscape/)