Clover

PX4 Simulation

WARNING

This article is about running a standalone PX4 simulation with a generic quadcopter and is outdated. Consider using our configuration for a more Clover-like experience.

Main article: https://dev.px4.io/en/simulation/open in new window

PX4 simulation is possible in Linux and macOS with the use of physical environment simulation systems jMAVSimopen in new window and the Gazeboopen in new window.

jMAVSim is a lightweight environment intended only for testing multi-rotor aircraft systems; Gazebo is a versatile environment for all types of robots.

Launching PX4 SITL

  1. Clone repository from PX4.
git clone https://github.com/PX4/Firmware.git
cd Firmware

jMAVSim

Main article: https://dev.px4.io/en/simulation/jmavsim.htmlopen in new window

For simulation using the jMAVSim lightweight environment, use the following command:

make posix_sitl_default jmavsim

To use the LPE position calculation module instead of EKF2, use:

make posix_sitl_lpe jmavsim

Gazebo

Main article: https://dev.px4.io/en/simulation/gazebo.htmlopen in new window

To get started, install Gazebo 7. On a Mac:

brew install gazebo7

On Linux (Debian):

sudo apt-get install gazebo7 libgazebo7-dev

Start simulation from the Firmware folder:

make posix_sitl_default gazebo

You can run a simulation in headless mode (without a window client). To do this, use the following command:

HEADLESS=1 make posix_sitl_default gazebo

Connection

QGroundControl will automatically connect to the running simulation on startup. The operation will be the same as, as in the case of a real flight controller.

To connect MAVROS to the simulation, use the UDP Protocol, a local IP address, and port 14557, for example:

roslaunch mavros px4.launch fcu_url:=udp://@127.0.0.1:14557