3G/GSM Controlled Drone

Navio / Edge Hardware
1

Hello Guys,

I am new here and to the Linux drone world. I am working on developing a demo project for autonomous drone delivery solution, so I want to control/monitor the drone via a 3G/GSM data connection.

The idea is that, the RPi module will keep looking for fight data using a REST API from a server over the 3G connection. Once the flight signal is received along with the destination GPS coordinates, drone will start - fly - move to the destination - lower down - drop the package and than return back to the landing pad (Just don’t care about the obstacle avoidance for now). The RPi will have a camera module that will look for a drop pad with a specific QR code to ensure the drop pad is the stated place and is almost in the premises of the provided GPS coordinates.

I have much experience with developing API’s connecting them to IoT devices over 3G/GSM

  1. The help I need from you is the hardware stack information to navigate the drone to the target GPS coordinates.

  2. How I can control the NAVIO module by sending signals over the HTTP or how to find the way towards the given GPS coordinates so the drone can go and come back with accuracy.

  3. Example of the code that I can use to control NAVIO from RPi

2

Hi, have been looking into lots of network uses for the Navio so I can help a little. MavProxy should be an easy answer for questions 1 and 2. What you do is setup a telemetry link over UDP with your 3G modem in APM, info can be found in Navio Docs to do this. Then, MavProxy allows you to both receive and send data and commands from the Navio, from a command line interface. So you would have to look up specifics about MavProxy, but once you receive GPS coords given a few calculations you can send commands via command line to the Navio.

Hope this helps!