Aligatorpy

Autonomous drone mission system for payload delivery and surveillance using MAVLink protocol.

Overview

This project implements a complete drone mission control system with:

• MAVLink communication for drone control
• Camera capture and image processing
• Trajectory simulation for accurate payload drops
• Mission planning and execution
• Raspberry Pi deployment configuration

Project Structure

• Application/: Core application modules

  • calc_drop_translation/: Physics simulation for drop trajectories
  • configuration/: Configuration loading and management
  • Logger/: Logging utilities
  • media/: Output directories for logs, photos, videos
  • Services/: MAVLink and camera service interfaces

• Raspberry_configuration/: Raspberry Pi setup and configuration files

• tests/: Test scripts for validation

• *.py: Main entry points and utilities

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• Raspberry Pi with camera module
• MAVLink-compatible drone (e.g., Matek systems)

Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Configure Raspberry Pi using Raspberry_configuration/Pipeline.md
3. Edit Application/configuration/config.toml for your hardware
4. Install dependencies: pip install -r Raspberry_configuration/config_files/requirements.txt

Running

# Test camera and MAVLink connection
python3 Camera_test.py

# Run main mission
python3 main.py

Configuration

Edit Application/configuration/config.toml to set:

• MAVLink device and baud rate
• Drop physics parameters (mass, drag coefficients)
• Camera resolution
• Mission directories

The system automatically runs pre-flight simulations to compute drop offsets.

Testing

Run tests from the tests/ directory:

python3 tests/test.py

Deployment

Use the Raspberry Pi configuration files to set up the target hardware:

• Copy boot configs from Raspberry_configuration/config_files/
• Enable UART and camera interfaces
• Install required packages

Contributing

1. Follow the existing code structure
2. Add tests for new features
3. Update READMEs in relevant folders
4. Ensure configuration changes are backward compatible

License

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