PX4-Autopilot Main Release Notes

Alpha

This contains changes to PX4 main branch since the last major release (PX v1.15).

WARNING

The PX4 v1.15 release is in beta testing, pending release. Update these notes with features that are going to be in main but not the PX4 v1.15 release.

Read Before Upgrading

TBD …

Please continue reading for upgrade instructions.

Major Changes

• TBD

Upgrade Guide

Other changes

Hardware Support

• TBD

Common

• Battery level estimation improvements. (PX4-Autopilot#23205).
  • Voltage-based estimation with load compensation now uses a real-time estimate of the internal resistance of the battery to compensate voltage drops under load (with increased current), providing a better capacity estimate than with the raw measured voltage.
  • Thrust-based load compensation has been removed (along with the BATn_V_LOAD_DROP parameters, where n is the battery number).
• The Position (GNSS) loss failsafe configurable delay (COM_POS_FS_DELAY) has been removed. The failsafe will now trigger 1 second after position has been lost. (PX4-Autopilot#24063).
• Log Encryption now generates an encrypted log that contains the public-key-encrypted symmetric key that can be used to decrypt it, instead of putting the key into a separate file. This makes log decryption much easier, as there is no need to download or identify a separate key file. (PX4-Autopilot#24024).
• The generic mission command timeout MIS_COMMAND_TOUT parameter replaces the delivery-specific MIS_PD_TO parameter. Mission commands that may take some time to complete, such as those for controlling gimbals, winches, and grippers, will progress to the next item when either feedback is received or the timeout expires. This is often used to provide a minimum delay for hardware that does not provide completion feedback, so that it can reach the commanded state before the mission progresses. (PX4-Autopilot#23960).

Control

• TBD

Estimation

• TBD

Sensors

• TBD

Simulation

• [SIH]: The SIH on SITL custom takeoff location in now set using the normal unscaled GPS position values, where previously the value needed to be multiplied by 1E7. (PX4-Autopilot#23363).
• [Gazebo]:
  • Gazebo Harmonic LTS release replaces Gazebo Garden as the version supported by PX4. The default installer scripts (used for CI) and documentation have been updated. This is required because Garden end-of-life is Nov 2024. (PX4-Autopilot#23603)
  • New vehicle model x500_lidar_2d — x500 Quadrotor with 2D Lidar. (PX4-Autopilot#22418, PX4-gazebo-models#41).
  • New vehicle model x500_lidar_front — X500 Quadrotor with 1D LIDAR (Front-facing). (PX4-Autopilot#23879, PX4-gazebo-models#62).
  • New vehicle model x500_lidar_down — X500 Quadrotor with 1D LIDAR (Down-facing). (PX4-Autopilot#23879, PX4-gazebo-models#62).
  • New vehicle model r1_rover — Aion Robotics R1 Rover (PX4-Autopilot#22402 and PX4-gazebo-models#21).
  • New vehicle model rover_ackermann — Ackermann Rover (PX4-Autopilot#23383 and PX4-gazebo-models#46).
  • New vehicle model x500_gimbal — Quadrotor(x500) with gimbal (Front-facing) in Gazebo (PX4-Autopilot#23382 and PX4-gazebo-models#47 and PX4-gazebo-models#70).

Ethernet

• TBD

uXRCE-DDS / ROS2

• TBD

MAVLink

• TBD

Multi-Rotor

• Allow system-default multicopter orbit mode yaw behaviour to be configured, using the parameter MC_ORBIT_YAW_MOD (PX4-Autopilot#23358)
• Adapted the Collision Prevention implementation to work in the default manual flight mode (Acceleration Based) MPC_POS_MODE. (PX4-Autopilot#23507

VTOL

• TBD

Fixed-wing

• Improvement: Fixed-wing auto takeoff: enable setting takeoff flaps for hand/catapult launch. PX4-Autopilot#23460

Rover

This release contains a major rework for the rover support in PX4:

• Complete restructure of the rover related documentation.
• New firmware build specifically for rovers.
• New module dedicated to Ackermann rovers:
  • The module currently supports manual mode, acro mode, position mode and auto modes.
• New module dedicated to differential rovers:
  • The module currently supports manual mode, acro mode, stabilized mode, position mode and auto modes.
• New module dedicated to mecanum rovers:
  • The module currently supports manual mode, acro mode, stabilized mode, position mode and auto modes.
• Restructure of the rover airframe numbering convention (PX4-Autopilot#23506). This also introduces several new rover airframes:
  • Generic Differential Rover 50000.
  • Generic Ackermann Rover 51000.
  • Axial SCX10 2 Trail Honcho 51001.
  • Generic Mecanum Rover 52000.
• Library for the pure pursuit guidance algorithm that is shared by all the rover modules.
• Simulation for differential-steering and Ackermann rovers in gazebo (for release notes see r1_rover and rover_ackermann in simulation).
• Deprecation of the rover position control module: Note that the legacy rover module still exists but has been superseded by the new dedicated modules.

ROS 2

• TBD