What Softwares are used for Flight Paths

If any one from aerospace/UAV/aeronautics background or interest group can help me with names of software/frameworks used for creating flight paths, mission control of UAVs/Drones both in hobby level and/or Industrial level.

I haven’t had my quadcopter out for over a year but… It uses a PX4 flight controller (search for Pixhawk Clone or PX4 Clone) and some software called Mission Planner and/or QGroundControl. I think. :smiley:

The software that you use to plan a flight may differ depending on what flight controller is in the UAV.

I have heard of PX4, but can it be used for commercial/DoD grade flying? I want to learn the platform and software engineering part of it.

https://skyvector.com/

Yeah, I have no idea, sorry. Hobby-Grade is hard enough for me to figure out :smiley:

commercial/DoD grade flying

nothing that level would be available for the public.

Why not? You can start a commercial drone business with a $150 license.

https://skyward.io/commercial-drone-software
https://www.airmap.com/airmap-for-drones/



1 Like

Sure one can do commercial level but OP asked about “DoD grade flying”. That’s not publicly accessible even if its based on open source and open standards.

Now the closest I’ve found is https://globaluavtech.com/news-media/blog/the-new-mil-spec-open-source-drones/ and I know there’s a lot of the miltary drone pilots that lurk around on https://diydrones.com but actually downloading code not happening. well not easily.

My friend uses Litchi to map waypoints with camera moves included. I will see if he will share some of his footage.

I mean I’m not even sure what “DoD grade” flying is supposed to mean, so unless OP can clarify their requirements would have to agree. But there’s a LOT out there that’s nicer than the clusterfucks that are Mission Planner and QGroundControl

2 Likes

By DoD grade i meant the feature set, quality, robustness, range, standards etc… Like Hummer vs Humvee, Oracle vs MySQL.

OK but unless you can put specifics on those I think it’s a meaningless term… it’s not like you’re gonna find software with fire controls.

My use of phrase “DoD grade” was an expression to some quality/feature standards that normally come with something that the DoD buys or uses. I haven’t worked with DoD or its vendors to have specifics.

Fire controls are set of triggers which can have civilian use cases too.

it’s not like you’re gonna find software with fire controls.

FC with analog or digital pin control = toggle switch. Do with that what you wish. Bomb bay doors? Weapon Release? . :smiley:

My use of phrase “DoD grade” was an expression to some quality/feature standards that normally come with something that the DoD buys or uses. I haven’t worked with DoD or its vendors to have specifics.

Again, that’s not for civilian eyes and one’s never going to find it easily. I’d suggest researching IEEE and ISO standards instead since those are the “public sector” standards that government contractors like Lockheed and Boeing use on behave of the DoD.

Also if the DoD is using anything in house then it was built at either Nelis, AFA, or USSTRATCOM. But mostly they just buy it from Lockheed and they’re using Indago which is just overengineed dji phantoms along with thier Kestral and Procerus flight system

Systems Tool Kit, GMAT, and matlab if you know how to create one from scratch code

1 Like