drone_racing

Current workflow for Pegasus Simulator 5.1, PX4 1.16, ROS 2 Humble, and the mpcc conda environment.

Requirements

• Isaac Sim 5.1 with Pegasus Simulator
• PX4 1.16 configured in the Pegasus extension
• ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04
• px4-ros_ws overlay built and sourced by tools/simdrone_env.sh
• conda environment mpcc
• ROS 2 package: px4_msgs

Load the project environment with:

cd /home/shaw/DroneSimulator/PegasusSimulator/examples/drone_racing
source ./tools/simdrone_env.sh

Config

Runtime options are loaded from YAML through DRONE_RACING_CONFIG.

export DRONE_RACING_CONFIG=config_0.yaml
export DRONE_RACING_CONFIG=config_1.yaml
export DRONE_RACING_CONFIG=cfg_visual.yaml
export DRONE_RACING_CONFIG=cfg_lidar.yaml

Relative config names are resolved under yamls/; absolute paths also work. If unset, config_0.yaml is used.

Current built-in configs:

• config_0.yaml: default single-vehicle config
• config_1.yaml: namespaced /px4_1/* config
• cfg_visual.yaml: visual pipeline config
• cfg_lidar.yaml: lidar pipeline config

Start Simulation

Recommended launcher:

cd /home/shaw/DroneSimulator/PegasusSimulator/examples/drone_racing
./tools/simdrone_single.sh

It starts Isaac Sim, MicroXRCEAgent, and QGroundControl.

Manual startup:

cd /home/shaw/DroneSimulator/PegasusSimulator/examples/drone_racing
isaac_run ./isaacsim/sim_single.py
MicroXRCEAgent udp4 -p 8888
~/DroneSimulator/QGroundControl-x86_64.AppImage

Task and scene selection:

isaac_run ./isaacsim/sim_single.py --list-tasks
isaac_run ./isaacsim/sim_single.py --list-scenes
isaac_run ./isaacsim/sim_single.py --task-index 0 --scene-index 0

Start Controller

Recommended launcher:

cd /home/shaw/DroneSimulator/PegasusSimulator/examples/drone_racing
./tools/run_code.sh
./tools/run_code.sh mysession cfg_visual.yaml

It starts:

• python plan2track/plan2track.py
• python fsm/fsm_node.py
• python fsm/fsm_app.py

Manual startup:

cd /home/shaw/DroneSimulator/PegasusSimulator/examples/drone_racing
source ./tools/simdrone_env.sh
export DRONE_RACING_CONFIG=cfg_visual.yaml

python plan2track/plan2track.py
python fsm/fsm_node.py
python fsm/fsm_app.py

fsm/fsm_node.py reads controller and solver settings from the selected YAML.

FSM Commands

Use fsm/fsm_app.py for interactive commands:

• prepare
• takeoff
• execute
• return
• land
• abort
• help
• state
• quit

YAML Sections

The config loader is yamls/config.py.

• runtime: controller and solver selection
• fsm: FSM topics, logging, takeoff speed, and optional auto-land thresholds
• plan2track: path topics, waypoint loading mode, loop mode, fixed yaw, and init_yaw
• tracking_ros: PX4 ROS topics, target system, and pub_offboard
• tracking.tasks: waypoint file selection
• tracking.mpc: horizon, timestep, and reference speed
• tracking.control: controller timer period
• tracking.yaw: yaw gain and yaw-rate limit
• tracking.ctbr: body-rate/thrust conversion parameters
• tracking.accel_fusion: acceleration smoothing
• tracking.constraints: MPC state/input bounds
• tracking.mpc_cost: MPC cost weights
• tracking.mpcc_cost: MPCC cost weights

Notes:

• Isaac Sim uses an ENU world frame. Waypoint text files are loaded as NED and converted to ENU by the planner/simulation utilities.
• origin_mode: fixed keeps the waypoint file origin fixed; origin_mode: first_xy shifts the path so the first waypoint has local x/y = 0/0.
• fixed_yaw: true publishes init_yaw as the yaw command. fixed_yaw: false publishes path-tangent yaw.
• pub_offboard: false prevents publishing the OFFBOARD VehicleCommand; rate setpoints and offboard mode messages are still controlled by the FSM behavior state.

Key Files

• fsm/fsm_node.py: FSM ROS node and transition coordinator
• fsm/behaviors.py: per-state behavior and tracker command publication
• fsm/fsm_app.py: interactive FSM terminal
• plan2track/plan2track.py: waypoint/path bridge for MPC/MPCC tracking
• tracking/tracking_cnt.py: controller step and yaw-rate logic
• tracking/tracking_ros.py: PX4 ROS message bridge
• isaacsim/sim_single.py: single-vehicle Isaac Sim app
• yamls/config.py: YAML config loader
• yamls/*.yaml: runtime configs