Ground control station

1) MAVProxy

MAVProxy is a MAVLink protocol proxy and ground station. It is a fully-functioning GCS for UAV's and is oriented towards command-line operation. It is an extendable GCS for any UAV supporting the MAVLink protocol such as ArduPilotMega (APM). It is also a command-line, console-based application which runs in command prompt. It is written in Python scripts and supports loadable modules which in turn support consoles, moving maps, joysticks, antenna trackers and image processing module.

2) Mission Planner

Mission Planner is a fully-featured ground control station. It is used for waypoint entry using GPS and to select mission commands from drop-down menus. Mission planner can also be used to download mission log files for analysing and to configure APM settings for airframe. It is also used to set the tilting angle limit and servo PWM limit for release mechanism.

3) Setting servo PWM limits and angle limits

The picture below shows the snapshot of mission waypoint entry using Mission Planner V1.2.55 through GPS. Whereas, Figure 3.11 shows the setting of servo limits and tilting angle limits using Mission Planner. Both parameters are set to RC6 as servo input channel and RC11 as output channel on APM flight controller. Here, the lowest servo limit is set to 1100 whereas the highest is set to 1900 according to the value shown in radio calibration. The range of angle limits is set between -45 and +45 degree.