BlueROV2, Ardusub & MAVlink

Blue Robotics Software
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1

Hi,

Im looking for some help! I want to connect a surface GPS via usb into my laptop (that hosts Cockpit, QGroundcontrol) so it can feed it in to the ROV. My ROV also have a Ping sonar (altimeter and echo sounder) attached. I want all of this to talk to each other, but also display within the main platforms (not Ping Finder). Ive read that you can do some back-end work with MAVlink and Ardusub to make this happen, but im completely confused.

Can anyone provide some insights or even “how-to’s” so I can make this happen? There is so much information on the forum that I could spend days looking for an answer! Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Hi @ChrisB_CNPS -

Can you share what you’d like the GPS connected to your laptop to do? Typically it can show the location of your computer on the map, but this position is not relevant to the autopilot of the vehicle…. so I’m a bit confused why you would want to feed that position to the ROV?

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Thanks for the reply, Tony. This is where I get confused! I have two things id like to achieve:

  1. Have the ping sonar show within QGroundcontrol or Cockpit (if possible)
  2. know the GPS location of the ROV whilst in the water

Im not interested in running autopilot / hands-free operations. Thanks :slight_smile:

4

Hi @ChrisB_CNPS -

It’s easy to show ping sonar returns within Cockpit - install the “Ping Viewer Next” extension (still in beta) - after that, a ping widget will appear in Cockpit’s edit interface menu, that can be placed and used as desired.

It is not easy to know the GPS location of the ROV while it is in the water - if it is below the water, it won’t have any way to know GPS position as radio waves don’t penetrate at all! You could install a GPS on the ROV so that it shows up on the map in the correct position when at the surface, otherwise more expensive acoustic localization hardware is required….

An ROV is really not well suited for creating bathymetric maps - it is slow, and using acoustic localization is not going to come anywhere close to a the accuracy of a good GPS at the surface - that’s why Blue Robotics developed the BlueBoat!