Agipix Autonomy: Planning and Control

AgiAUTO (ROS 2) — Agipix PX4 Autonomy Stack

This repository is the AgiAUTO autonomy module of Agipix for PX4-based UAV missions in ROS 2.

• HW and SIM Platform Repository: https://github.com/SasaKuruppuarachchi/agipix.git
• Platform docs: https://sasakuruppuarachchi.github.io/agipix/
• Publication (ICUAS 2026 submission): “Agipix: A Comprehensive Aerial Robotics Platform Bridging Simulation and Reality”

System architecture (current)

									Sensors 
						(depth / point cloud / RGB / lidar) 
								+ PX4 state topics
										│
										▼
								onboard_detector
					(dynamic obstacle detection + tracking)
										│
										▼
									map_manager 
					(occupancy/dynamic map + collision/raycast)
										│
					┌───────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
					▼                                              ▼
			global_planner (RRT/RRT*/DEP)                    trajectory_planner
		(global waypoints / exploration path) 	            (poly/PWL/B-spline)
					└───────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
										▼
							 	 time_optimizer 
								   (optional)
								        │
										▼
								autonomous_flight 
						(mission executive/state machine)
										│
										▼
							  px4_control_interface 
				(DDS tracking mode + setpoint writer + executor flow)
										▼
  									   PX4

Package roles

• autonomous_flight: mission orchestration (takeoff, navigation, rl_navigation, dynamic_navigation, inspection, dynamic_inspection, dynamic_exploration)
• px4_control_interface: DDS-native PX4 mode/executor runtime and target tracking bridge
• map_manager: occupancy and dynamic map representations, map services
• onboard_detector: dynamic obstacle perception, data association, tracking
• global_planner: global planning and exploration planning (RRT/RRT*, DEP)
• trajectory_planner: smooth local trajectory generation (poly/PWL/B-spline)
• time_optimizer: trajectory time allocation optimization utilities
• agi_viz: centralized RViz profiles for autonomy stack visualization

Note: the standalone legacy middle-level controller package is no longer part of the active DDS runtime control path.

PX4 ROS 2 interface setup

Validated against PX4 v1.16.1 message definitions.

mkdir -p ~/workspace/agipix_control/src
cd ~/workspace/agipix_control/src

# PX4 messages + autopilot source (for message sync)
git clone https://github.com/PX4/px4_msgs.git
git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git -b v1.16.1

# Sync message/service definitions
rm -f px4_msgs/msg/*.msg px4_msgs/srv/*.srv
cp PX4-Autopilot/msg/*.msg px4_msgs/msg/
cp PX4-Autopilot/msg/versioned/*.msg px4_msgs/msg/
cp PX4-Autopilot/srv/*.srv px4_msgs/srv/
touch px4_version_synced_v1_16_1
rm -rf PX4-Autopilot

# PX4 ROS 2 interface library
git clone https://github.com/Auterion/px4-ros2-interface-lib -b release/1.16

Compatibility check:

cd ~/workspace/agipix_control/src/px4-ros2-interface-lib
./scripts/check-message-compatibility.py -v path/to/px4_msgs/ path/to/PX4-Autopilot/

Build:

cd ~/workspace/agipix_control
colcon build --packages-select px4_msgs
colcon build --packages-select px4_ros2_cpp
colcon build # builds the autonomy stack

Demo media (placeholders)

ros2 launch px4_control_interface dds_shadow.launch.py use_sim_time:=true start_legacy_stack:=true mission:=<mission_name>

Available missions: takeoff_and_hover, takeoff_and_track_circle, navigation, rl_navigation, dynamic_navigation, dynamic_inspection, dynamic_exploration, inspection

• [PLACEHOLDER] Takeoff + hover demo video
• [PLACEHOLDER] Dynamic navigation demo video
• [PLACEHOLDER] Dynamic exploration demo video
• [PLACEHOLDER] Dynamic inspection demo video

Current status

• ROS 1 → ROS 2 porting completed for the autonomy stack in this repository.
• Runtime stack is PX4 DDS-native (MAVROS backend removed from active control path).
• Mission validation status:
  • ✅ takeoff and hover
  • ✅ takeoff and track circle
  • ✅ navigation
  • ✅ rl navigation
  • ✅ dynamic navigation
  • ✅ dynamic exploration
  • ✅ dynamic inspection

Credits

This stack builds on original CERLAB autonomy components and research implementations by Zhefan Xu and collaborators.

This repository version is a ROS 2 integration within Agipix by Sasa Kuruppuarachchi.

Please credit both:

1. Original algorithm/software authors (see package-level citations)
2. Agipix ROS 2 integration and platform engineering work in this repository