Overview

Relevant source files

Mission Planner is a comprehensive ground control station (GCS) application designed primarily for vehicles using the ArduPilot open-source autopilot system. It provides a technical interface for mission planning, vehicle configuration, real-time monitoring, and control of autonomous vehicles including drones, planes, helicopters, rovers, boats, and submarines.

This documentation provides a technical overview of the Mission Planner software architecture, core components, and how they interact with each other. It explains the key systems within Mission Planner and serves as a starting point for understanding the codebase.

System Purpose and Capabilities

Mission Planner serves as the primary interface between human operators and autonomous vehicles. Its main capabilities include:

Real-time Flight Monitoring: Visualizing telemetry via a Heads-Up Display (HUD) and map.
Mission Planning: Waypoint management and automated survey grid generation.
Vehicle Configuration: Full parameter tuning and hardware calibration (Compass, Radio, Accel).
Firmware Management: Detecting hardware and flashing ArduPilot firmware via PX4 uploader or DFU.
Data Analysis: Parsing and graphing DataFlash (.bin) and Telemetry (.tlog) logs.

Sources: Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs7-12 MissionPlanner.csproj1-39 ChangeLog.txt1-20

Core Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the high-level architecture of Mission Planner, bridging the user interface to the underlying communication and state management entities.

System Entity Map

Sources: MainV2.cs52-55 ExtLibs/Comms/MissionPlanner.Comms.csproj1-10 GCSViews/FlightData.cs40-42 MainV2.cs48-49

Data Flow Architecture

Data flows from the vehicle through various transport layers, is parsed by the MAVLink engine, and finally updates the CurrentState object which triggers UI updates.

Sources: MainV2.cs34-35 GCSViews/FlightData.cs44-46 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs123-124 Program.cs4-6

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

The CurrentState class acts as the "Single Source of Truth" for a connected vehicle's real-time telemetry. It aggregates data from multiple MAVLink messages (e.g., VFR_HUD, GLOBAL_POSITION_INT, SYS_STATUS) into a unified object used by all UI components.

Attitude: Roll, Pitch, Yaw.
Position: Lat, Lon, Alt (MSL/Relative).
System: Battery voltage, Current, Remaining, GPS Status.
New Additions: Support for ch1percent and updated barometer types.

Sources: ChangeLog.txt34-35 MainV2.cs34-35

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)

The planning system manages Locationwp objects which represent waypoints, commands, and metadata.

Waypoint Management: Uses MAV_CMD definitions to create mission sequences.
Geofencing: Defines inclusion/exclusion zones via geofenceoverlay.
Survey Tools: Automated grid generation via MissionPlanner.Gridv2 and MissionPlanner.SimpleGrid.
Validation: Includes warnings for zero-altitude waypoints and QuadPlane takeoff pitch skips.

Sources: GCSViews/FlightPlanner.cs58-61 GCSViews/FlightPlanner.cs109-110 ChangeLog.txt14-22

Extension and Plugin System

Mission Planner is highly extensible. It supports:

IronPython Scripting: Automation of GCS tasks via the Script tab in FlightData.
C# Plugins: Dynamic loading of DLLs that implement the IPlugin interface to add custom UI or logic.
GStreamer Integration: High-performance video streaming and HUD overlays, including recent updates for non-singleton GStreamer instances and Gimbal Video Control.

Sources: GCSViews/FlightData.cs152-160 ChangeLog.txt84-133 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs45

Build and Deployment

The project is primarily a .NET 4.7.2 application with multi-platform support:

Windows: Primary target using WiX for MSI installers.
Cross-Platform: Recent updates include fixes for Android/iOS targets and SkiaSharp-based rendering in the HUD for non-Windows environments.
CI/CD: Automated builds via AppVeyor and Azure Pipelines.

Sources: MissionPlanner.csproj1-3 ChangeLog.txt2-3 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs25-27 appveyor.yml1-10

Overview

Relevant source files

System Purpose and Capabilities

Mission Planner serves as the primary interface between human operators and autonomous vehicles. Its main capabilities include:

Real-time Flight Monitoring: Visualizing telemetry via a Heads-Up Display (HUD) and map.
Mission Planning: Waypoint management and automated survey grid generation.
Vehicle Configuration: Full parameter tuning and hardware calibration (Compass, Radio, Accel).
Firmware Management: Detecting hardware and flashing ArduPilot firmware via PX4 uploader or DFU.
Data Analysis: Parsing and graphing DataFlash (.bin) and Telemetry (.tlog) logs.

Sources: Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs7-12 MissionPlanner.csproj1-39 ChangeLog.txt1-20

Core Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the high-level architecture of Mission Planner, bridging the user interface to the underlying communication and state management entities.

System Entity Map

Sources: MainV2.cs52-55 ExtLibs/Comms/MissionPlanner.Comms.csproj1-10 GCSViews/FlightData.cs40-42 MainV2.cs48-49

Data Flow Architecture

Data flows from the vehicle through various transport layers, is parsed by the MAVLink engine, and finally updates the CurrentState object which triggers UI updates.

Sources: MainV2.cs34-35 GCSViews/FlightData.cs44-46 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs123-124 Program.cs4-6

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

Attitude: Roll, Pitch, Yaw.
Position: Lat, Lon, Alt (MSL/Relative).
System: Battery voltage, Current, Remaining, GPS Status.
New Additions: Support for ch1percent and updated barometer types.

Sources: ChangeLog.txt34-35 MainV2.cs34-35

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)

The planning system manages Locationwp objects which represent waypoints, commands, and metadata.

Waypoint Management: Uses MAV_CMD definitions to create mission sequences.
Geofencing: Defines inclusion/exclusion zones via geofenceoverlay.
Survey Tools: Automated grid generation via MissionPlanner.Gridv2 and MissionPlanner.SimpleGrid.
Validation: Includes warnings for zero-altitude waypoints and QuadPlane takeoff pitch skips.

Sources: GCSViews/FlightPlanner.cs58-61 GCSViews/FlightPlanner.cs109-110 ChangeLog.txt14-22

Extension and Plugin System

Mission Planner is highly extensible. It supports:

IronPython Scripting: Automation of GCS tasks via the Script tab in FlightData.
C# Plugins: Dynamic loading of DLLs that implement the IPlugin interface to add custom UI or logic.
GStreamer Integration: High-performance video streaming and HUD overlays, including recent updates for non-singleton GStreamer instances and Gimbal Video Control.

Sources: GCSViews/FlightData.cs152-160 ChangeLog.txt84-133 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs45

Build and Deployment

The project is primarily a .NET 4.7.2 application with multi-platform support:

Windows: Primary target using WiX for MSI installers.
Cross-Platform: Recent updates include fixes for Android/iOS targets and SkiaSharp-based rendering in the HUD for non-Windows environments.
CI/CD: Automated builds via AppVeyor and Azure Pipelines.

Sources: MissionPlanner.csproj1-3 ChangeLog.txt2-3 ExtLibs/Controls/HUD.cs25-27 appveyor.yml1-10

Overview

System Purpose and Capabilities

Core Architecture

System Entity Map

Data Flow Architecture

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)

Extension and Plugin System

Build and Deployment

On this page

Overview

System Purpose and Capabilities

Core Architecture

System Entity Map

Data Flow Architecture

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)

Extension and Plugin System

Build and Deployment

On this page

Overview

System Purpose and Capabilities

Core Architecture

System Entity Map

Data Flow Architecture

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (CurrentState)

Mission Planning (FlightPlanner)

Extension and Plugin System

Build and Deployment

On this page

Overview

System Purpose and Capabilities

Core Architecture

System Entity Map

Data Flow Architecture

Key Functional Areas

Vehicle State Management (CurrentState)

Mission Planning (FlightPlanner)

Extension and Plugin System

Build and Deployment

On this page

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)

Vehicle State Management (`CurrentState`)

Mission Planning (`FlightPlanner`)