PX4 User Guide
  • Introduction
  • Getting Started
    • Basic Concepts
    • Vehicles/Frames
    • Flight Controllers
    • Sensors
    • Radio Systems
    • Flight Modes
    • Vehicle Status Notifications
      • LED Meanings
      • Tune/Sound Meanings
      • Preflight Checks
    • Payloads & Cameras
    • Flight Reporting
  • Basic Assembly
    • Mounting the Flight Controller
    • Mounting the GPS/Compass
    • Vibration Isolation
    • Cable Wiring
    • CUAV Pixhawk V6X Wiring QuickStart
    • CUAV V5+ Wiring Quickstart
    • CUAV V5 nano Wiring Quickstart
    • Holybro Pixhawk 6C Wiring Quickstart
    • Holybro Pixhawk 6X Wiring Quickstart
    • Holybro Pixhawk 5X Wiring Quickstart
    • Holybro Pixhawk 4 Wiring Quickstart - Discontinued
    • Holybro Pixhawk 4 Mini Wiring Quickstart - Discontinued
    • Holybro Durandal Wiring Quickstart
    • Holybro Pix32 v5 Wiring Quickstart
    • Cube Wiring Quickstart
    • Pixracer Wiring Quickstart
    • mRo (3DR) Pixhawk Wiring Quickstart
  • Standard Configuration
    • Firmware
    • Airframe
    • Sensor Orientation
    • Compass
    • Gyroscope
    • Accelerometer
    • Airspeed
    • Level Horizon Calibration
    • Radio Setup
    • Joystick Setup
    • Flight Modes
    • Battery
    • Safety
      • Failsafe Simulation
    • ESC Calibration
    • Actuators
    • Autotune
  • Vehicle Types & Setup
    • Multicopters
      • Multicopter Config/Tuning
        • MC Filter/Control Latency Tuning
        • MC PID Tuning (Manual/Basic)
        • MC PID Tuning Guide (Manual/Advanced)
        • MC Setpoint Tuning (Trajectory Generator)
          • MC Jerk-limited Type Trajectory
        • Multicopter Racer Setup
      • X500 v2 (Pixhawk 6C)
      • X500 v2 (Pixhawk 5X)
      • X500 (Pixhawk 4)
      • S500 V2 (Pixhawk 4)
      • DJI F450 (CUAV v5+)
      • DJI F450 (CUAV v5 nano)
      • QAV250 (Pixhawk4 Mini) - Discontinued
      • DJI F450 + RTK (Pixhawk 3 Pro)
      • QAV250 (Pixhawk Mini)
      • QAV-R 5" Racer (Pixracer)
      • Omnicopter
    • Planes
      • Fixed Wing Config/Tuning
        • Fixedwing PID Tuning Guide
        • Fixedwing Advanced Tuning Guide
        • Fixedwing Trimming Guide
      • Reptile Dragon 2 (ARK6X)
      • Turbo Timber Evolution (Pixhawk 4 Mini)
      • Wing Wing Z84 (Pixracer)
    • VTOL
      • VTOL Config/Tuning
        • QuadPlane Configuration
        • Back-transition Tuning
        • VTOL w/o Airspeed Sensor
        • VTOL Weather Vane
      • Standard VTOL
        • FunCub QuadPlane (Pixhawk)
        • Ranger QuadPlane (Pixhawk)
        • Falcon Vertigo QuadPlane (Dropix)
      • Tailsitter VTOL
        • Build: TBS Caipiroshka Tailsitter Build (Pixracer)
      • Tiltrotor VTOL
        • Build: Convergence Tiltrotor (Pixfalcon)
    • Airships (experimental)
    • Autogyros (experimental)
      • ThunderFly Auto-G2 (Holybro pix32)
    • Balloons (experimental)
    • Helicopter (experimental)
      • Helicopter Config/Tuning
    • Rovers (experimental)
      • Traxxas Stampede
    • Submarines (experimental)
      • BlueROV2
    • Airframes Reference
  • Flying
    • First Flight Guidelines
    • Flying 101
    • Missions
      • Package Delivery Mission
    • GeoFence
    • Safety Point Planning
    • Flight Modes
      • Position Mode (MC)
      • Altitude Mode (MC)
      • Manual/Stabilized Mode (MC)
      • Acro Mode (MC)
      • Orbit Mode (MC)
      • Position Mode (FW)
      • Altitude Mode (FW)
      • Stabilized Mode (FW)
      • Acro Mode (FW)
      • Manual Mode (FW)
      • Takeoff Mode
      • Land Mode
      • Return Mode
      • Hold Mode
      • Mission Mode
      • Follow Me Mode
      • Offboard Mode
    • Terrain Following/Holding
  • Flight Log Analysis
    • Log Analysis using Flight Review
    • Log Analysis using PlotJuggler
  • Advanced Configuration
    • Finding/Updating Parameters
    • Full Parameter Reference
    • ECL/EKF Overview & Tuning
    • Flight Termination Configuration
    • Bootloader Flashing onto Betaflight Systems
    • Land Detector Configuration
    • Prearm/Arm/Disarm Configuration
    • IMU Factory Calibration
    • Sensor Thermal Compensation
    • Compass Power Compensation
    • Advanced Controller Orientation
    • Static Pressure Buildup
    • Serial Port Configuration
    • MAVLink Telemetry (OSD/GCS)
    • PX4 Ethernet Setup
    • Bootloader Update
  • Hardware (Drones&Parts)
    • Complete Vehicles
      • ModalAI Starling
      • PX4 Vision Kit
      • MindRacer BNF & RTF
        • MindRacer 210
        • NanoMind 110
      • Holybro Kopis 2
      • Bitcraze Crazyflie 2.1
    • Flight Controllers (Autopilots)
      • Pixhawk Series
        • Silicon Errata
      • Pixhawk Standard Autopilots
        • CUAV Pixhawk V6X (FMUv6X)
        • Holybro Pixhawk 6X (FMUv6X)
        • Holybro Pixhawk 6C (FMUv6C)
        • Holybro Pixhawk 6C Mini(FMUv6C)
        • Holybro Pix32 v6 (FMUv6C)
        • Holybro Pixhawk 5X (FMUv5X)
        • Holybro Pixhawk 4 (FMUv5) - Discontinued
        • Holybro Pixhawk 4 Mini (FMUv5) - Discontinued
        • Drotek Pixhawk 3 Pro (FMUv4pro)
        • mRo Pixracer (FMUv4)
        • Hex Cube Black (FMUv3)
        • mRo Pixhawk (FMUv3)
        • Holybro Pixhawk Mini (FMUv3) - Discontinued
      • Manufacturer-Supported Autopilots
        • AirMind MindPX
        • AirMind MindRacer
        • ARK Electronics ARKV6X
        • CUAV X7
        • CUAV Nora
        • CUAV V5+ (FMUv5)
        • CUAV V5 nano (FMUv5)
        • CUAV Pixhack v3 (FMUv3)
        • CubePilot Cube Orange+ (CubePilot)
        • CubePilot Cube Orange (CubePilot)
        • CubePilot Cube Yellow (CubePilot)
        • Holybro Kakute H7v2
        • Holybro Kakute H7mini
        • Holybro Kakute H7
        • Holybro Durandal
        • Holybro Pix32 v5
        • ModalAI Flight Core v1
        • ModalAI VOXL Flight
        • ModalAI VOXL 2
        • mRobotics-X2.1 (FMUv2)
        • mRo Control Zero F7)
        • NXP RDDRONE-FMUK66 FMU
        • Sky-Drones AIRLink
        • SPRacing SPRacingH7EXTREME
        • ThePeach FCC-K1
        • ThePeach FCC-R1
      • Experimental Autopilots
        • BeagleBone Blue
        • Raspberry Pi 2/3 Navio2
        • Raspberry Pi 2/3/4 PilotPi
          • PilotPi with Raspberry Pi OS
          • PilotPi with Ubuntu Server
      • Discontinued Autopilots/Vehicles
        • Drotek Dropix (FMUv2)
        • Omnibus F4 SD
        • BetaFPV Beta75X 2S Brushless Whoop
        • Bitcraze Crazyflie 2.0
        • Aerotenna OcPoC-Zynq Mini
        • CUAV v5
        • Holybro Kakute F7 (Discontinued)
        • Holybro Pixfalcon
        • Holybro pix32 (FMUv2)
        • mRo AUAV-X2
        • 3DR Pixhawk 1
        • Snapdragon Flight
        • Intel® Aero RTF Drone (Discontinued)
      • Pixhawk Autopilot Bus (PAB) & Carriers
        • ARK Electronics Pixhawk Autopilot Bus Carrier
    • Flight Controller Peripherals
      • ADSB/FLARM (Traffic Avoidance)
      • Air Traffic Avoidance: ADSB/FLARM
      • Air Traffic Avoidance: UTM
      • Airspeed Sensors
        • TFSlot Airspeed Sensor
      • Barometers
      • Camera
      • Distance Sensors (Rangefinders)
        • Lightware SFxx Lidar
        • Ainstein US-D1 Standard Radar Altimeter
        • LeddarOne Lidar
        • Benewake TFmini Lidar
        • Lidar-Lite
        • TeraRanger
        • Lanbao PSK-CM8JL65-CC5
        • Avionics Anonymous Laser Altimeter UAVCAN Interface
      • ESCs & Motors
        • PWM ESCs and Servos
        • DShot ESCs
        • OneShot ESCs and Servos
        • DroneCAN ESCs
          • Zubax Telega
          • PX4 Sapog ESC Firmware
            • Holybro Kotleta
            • Zubax Orel
        • VESC
      • TBS Crossfire (CRSF) Telemetry
      • FrSky Telemetry
      • Gimbal (Mount) Configuration
      • GPS/Compass
        • ARK GPS
        • Holybro DroneCAN M8N GPS
        • LOCOSYS Hawk A1 GNSS
        • Hex Here2
        • Holybro M8N & M9N GPS
        • Sky-Drones SmartAP GPS
      • Grippers
        • Servo Gripper
      • Optical Flow
        • ARK Flow
        • PMW3901
        • PX4FLOW (Deprecated)
      • Precision Landing
      • Parachute
      • Power Modules/PDB
        • CUAV HV pm
        • CUAV CAN PMU
        • Holybro PM02
        • Holybro PM07
        • Holybro PM06 V2
        • Holybro PM02D (digital)
        • Holybro PM03D (digital)
        • Pomegranate Systems Power Module
        • Sky-Drones SmartAP PDB
      • Satellite Coms (Iridium/RockBlock)
      • Telemetry Radios
        • SiK Radio
          • RFD900 (SiK) Telemetry Radio
          • HolyBro (SIK) Telemetry Radio
        • Telemetry Wifi
          • ESP8266 WiFi Module
          • ESP32 WiFi Module
          • 3DR Telemetry Wifi (Discontinued)
        • Microhard Serial Telemetry Radio
          • ARK Electron Microhard Serial Telemetry Radio
          • Holybro Microhard P900 Telemetry Radio
        • CUAV P8 Telemetry Radio
        • HolyBro XBP9X - Discontinued
      • RTK GPS
        • ARK RTK GPS
        • RTK GPS Heading with Dual u-blox F9P
        • CUAV C-RTK
        • CUAV C-RTK2 PPK/RTK GNSS
        • CUAV C-RTK 9Ps
        • Femtones MINI2 Receiver
        • Freefly RTK GPS
        • Holybro H-RTK-F9P
        • Holybro H-RTK-M8P
        • Holybro H-RTK Unicore UM982 GPS
        • Locosys Hawk R1
        • Locosys Hawk R2
        • Septentrio AsteRx-RIB
        • Septentrio mosaic-go
        • Trimble MB-Two
        • CubePilot Here+ (Discontined)
      • Remote ID
      • Smart Batteries
        • Rotoye Batmon Battery Smartification Kit
      • Tachometers (Revolution Counters)
        • ThunderFly TFRPM01 Tachometer Sensor
      • I2C Peripherals
        • I2C bus accelerators
        • TFI2CADT01 I2C address translator
      • CAN Peripherals
      • DroneCAN Peripherals
        • PX4 DroneCAN Firmware
        • ARK CANnode
    • Companion Computers
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        • RasPi Pixhawk Companion
      • Companion Computer Peripherals
      • Holybro Pixhawk RPI CM4 Baseboard
      • Auterion Skynode
      • Computer Vision
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        • Safe Landing
        • Collision Prevention
        • Path Planning Interface
        • Motion Capture (MoCap)
        • Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO)
          • Realsense T265 Tracking Camera (VIO)
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    • Concepts
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      • Control Allocation
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      • Simulate Failsafes
      • HITL Simulation
      • Simulation-In-Hardware
    • Hardware
      • Flight Controller Reference Design
      • Manufacturer’s Board Support Guide
      • Flight Controller Porting Guide
        • PX4 Board Configuration (kconfig)
        • NuttX Board Porting Guide
      • Serial Port Mapping
      • Airframes
        • Adding a New Airframe
      • Device Drivers
      • Telemetry Radio
        • SiK Radio
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        • DroneCAN
        • I2C Bus
        • UART/Serial Ports
          • Port-Configurable Serial Drivers
      • RTK GPS (Integration)
    • Middleware
      • uORB Messaging
      • uORB Graph
      • uORB Message Reference
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        • ActuatorMotors
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On this page
  • Installation (Ubuntu Linux)
  • Running the Simulation
  • Taking it to the Sky
  • Usage/Configuration Options
  • Display the frame rate
  • Set Custom Takeoff Location
  • Using a Joystick
  • Extending and Customizing
  • Further Information
  1. Development
  2. Simulation

FlightGear Simulation

PreviousMulti-Vehicle SimNextFlightGear Vehicles

Last updated 1 year ago

is a flight simulator with powerful . This allows FlightGear to simulate rotorcrafts under various meteorological conditions (which is why the bridge was originally developed by ).

This page describes FlightGear's single-vehicle use in SITL. For information about multi-vehicle use see: .

Supported Vehicles: Autogyro, Plane, Rover.

@

:::note See for general information about simulators, the simulation environment, and simulation configuration (e.g. supported vehicles). :::

Installation (Ubuntu Linux)

:::note These instructions were tested on Ubuntu 18.04 :::

  1. Install the usual .

  2. Install FlightGear:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/flightgear
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install flightgear

    This installs the latest stable FlightGear version from the PAA repository along with the FGdata package.

    :::tip For some models (e.g. those with electric engines) the daily build with the newest features may be necessary. Install this using the . :::

  3. Check that you are able to run FlightGear:

    fgfs --launcher
  4. Set write permissions to the Protocols folder in the FlightGear installation directory:

    sudo chmod a+w /usr/share/games/flightgear/Protocol

    Setting the permissions is required because the PX4-FlightGear-Bridge puts the communication definition file here.

Running the Simulation

Run a simulation by starting PX4 SITL, specifying the airframe configuration of your choice.

The easiest way to do this is to open a terminal in the root directory of the PX4 PX4-Autopilot repository and call make for the desired target. For example, to start a plane simulation :

cd /path/to/PX4-Autopilot
make px4_sitl_nolockstep flightgear_rascal

The supported vehicles and make commands are listed below (click on the links to see the vehicle images).

Vehicle
Command

make px4_sitl_nolockstep flightgear_rascal

make px4_sitl_nolockstep flightgear_tf-r1

make px4_sitl_nolockstep flightgear_tf-g1

The commands above launch a single vehicle with the full UI. QGroundControl should be able to automatically connect to the simulated vehicle.

:::note For the full list of FlightGear build targets (highlighted) run:

make px4_sitl_nolockstep list_vmd_make_targets | grep flightgear_

Taking it to the Sky

The make commands mentioned above first build PX4 and then run it along with the FlightGear simulator.

Once the PX4 has started it will launch the PX4 shell as shown below. You must select enter to get the command prompt.

______  __   __    ___
| ___ \ \ \ / /   /   |
| |_/ /  \ V /   / /| |
|  __/   /   \  / /_| |
| |     / /^\ \ \___  |
\_|     \/   \/     |_/

px4 starting.

INFO  [px4] Calling startup script: /bin/sh etc/init.d-posix/rcS 0
INFO  [param] selected parameter default file eeprom/parameters_1034
I'm Mavlink to FlightGear Bridge
Target Bridge Freq: 200, send data every step: 1
4
  5   -1
  7   -1
  2   1
  4   1
[param] Loaded: eeprom/parameters_1034
INFO  [dataman] Unknown restart, data manager file './dataman' size is 11798680 bytes
INFO  [simulator] Waiting for simulator to accept connection on TCP port 4560
INFO  [simulator] Simulator connected on TCP port 4560.
INFO  [commander] LED: open /dev/led0 failed (22)
INFO  [commander] Mission #3 loaded, 9 WPs, curr: 8
INFO  [mavlink] mode: Normal, data rate: 4000000 B/s on udp port 18570 remote port 14550
INFO  [airspeed_selector] No airspeed sensor detected. Switch to non-airspeed mode.
INFO  [mavlink] mode: Onboard, data rate: 4000000 B/s on udp port 14580 remote port 14540
INFO  [mavlink] mode: Onboard, data rate: 4000 B/s on udp port 14280 remote port 14030
INFO  [logger] logger started (mode=all)
INFO  [logger] Start file log (type: full)
INFO  [logger] Opened full log file: ./log/2020-04-28/22_03_36.ulg
INFO  [mavlink] MAVLink only on localhost (set param MAV_{i}_BROADCAST = 1 to enable network)
INFO  [px4] Startup script returned successfully
pxh> StatsHandler::StatsHandler() Setting up GL2 compatible shaders
Now checking for plug-in osgPlugins-3.4.1/osgdb_nvtt.so
PX4 Communicator: PX4 Connected.

pxh>

The console will print out status as PX4 loads the airframe-specific initialization and parameter files, wait for (and connect to) the simulator. Once there is an INFO print that [ecl/EKF] is commencing GPS fusion the vehicle is ready to arm. At this point, you should see a FlightGear window with some view of aircraft.

:::note You can change the view by pressing Ctrl+V. :::

You can bring it into the air by typing:

pxh> commander takeoff

Usage/Configuration Options

You can tune your FG installation/settings by the following environment variables:

  • FG\_BINARY - absolute path to FG binary to run. (It can be an AppImage)

  • FG\_MODELS\_DIR - absolute path to the folder containing the manually-downloaded aircraft models which should be used for simulation.

  • FG\_ARGS\_EX - any additional FG parameters.

Display the frame rate

In FlightGear you can display the frame rate by enabling it in: View > View Options > Show frame rate.

Set Custom Takeoff Location

Takeoff location in SITL FlightGear can be set using additional variables. Setting the variable will override the default takeoff location.

For example:

FG_ARGS_EX="--airport=PHNL"  make px4_sitl_nolockstep flightgear_rascal

Using a Joystick

The joystick input in FlightGear should be disabled in otherwise there will be a "race condition" between the FG joystick input and PX4 commands.

Extending and Customizing

Further Information

Additional installation instructions can be found on .

For additional information see: (this includes information about "unsupported" vehicles, and adding new vehicles). :::

:::note The guide is a useful reference if there are build errors. :::

The variables which can be set are as follows: --airport, --runway, and --offset-distance. Other options can be found on

The example above starts the simulation on the

Joystick and thumb-joystick are supported through QGroundControl ().

To extend or customize the simulation interface, edit the files in the Tools/simulation/flightgear/flightgear_bridge folder. The code is available in the on Github.

FlightGear wiki
FlightGear Vehicles
Installing Files and Code
FlightGear wiki
Honolulu international airport
PX4-FlightGear-Bridge repository
PX4-FlightGear-Bridge readme
FlightGear
FDM engines
ThunderFly s.r.o.
Multi-Vehicle Simulation with FlightGear
youtube
Simulation
Development Environment on Ubuntu LTS / Debian Linux
daily build PPA
Mermaid Graph
setup instructions here
FlightGear UI
Standard Plane
Ackerman vehicle (UGV/Rover)
Autogyro