Enhancement Arduplane Radio Failsafe Algorithm by Extending with a New Delegation Action

The article deals with the problem of the absence of a radio failsafe mechanism in the unmanned aerial vehicles' ArduPilot firmware that delegates the flight control management from manual mode to the onboard companion computer once the radio transmitter signal is lost due to natural reasons or caused by military-grade artificial radio interference. Algorithms for detecting signal loss and switching control to onboard computers are proposed. The proposed algorithms require knowledge adjustments and enhancements in three components: MAVlink protocol as a transport between parties, ArduPilot firmware running a flight controller, and a client library encapsulating MAVlink implementation. The proposed algorithms require knowledge of the principles of flight control approaches as well as programming skills in C++, and Python languages. To solve the problem adjustments and enhancements in three components are used: MAVlink protocol as a transport between parties, ArduPilot firmware running a flight controller, and a client library encapsulating MAVlink implementation. A brand-new short-radio failsafe action is added to keep ArduPilot firmware consistent. On top of that, the proposed problem-solving approach eliminates the potential misleading of pilots compared to modifying one of the existing failsafe scenarios. The simulation and field test results are presented, validating the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. These findings have potential applications in both civilian and military domains.