GUI

For teams that choose not to write any autonomous code, we have provided a small desktop app to help control the peripherals connected to the PCC.

Setup

First, clone the Phase 2 repo to your Windows laptop like you did in Phase I: https://bellflight.gitbook.io/vertical-robotics-competition/hardware/laptop-setup/clone-the-vrc-repo

Now, open up the Anaconda virtual environment you used during Phase I with the Phase II repo this time: https://bellflight.gitbook.io/vertical-robotics-competition/hardware/peripheral-component-computer/test-the-pcc#back-at-the-computer

Open up a terminal with VS Code (Terminal -> New Terminal at the very top), and run the command:

python -m pip install -r GUI/requirements.txt

to install the needed dependencies.

Usage

Now, you'll be able to open the file GUI/app.py and hit the Play button in VS Code.

The VMC software must be already be running on the VMC!

When the application starts, it'll ask for the IP address of your drone.

Enter that, and click "Ok". The application will now connect to your drone.

If the application is unable to connect to your drone, it'll show an error message and exit.

Control Window

Now, you can click the buttons to change the color of the LEDs, open and close servos, and do a full peripheral computer reset.

At the bottom of the control window are status icons for the various software modules, indicating if they're online. If these are all green, you are good to fly!

Four green status indicators

Autonomous Mode

As for the "Autonomous" buttons of the software, this is purely optional for the teams that have chosen to write autonomous code. These buttons send a message to the MQTT topic vrc/autonomous with a payload of

// enable button
{
    "enable": true,
}

// disable button
{
    "enable": false,
}

For any teams writing their own autonomous code, they can write a listener for this topic to enable/disable their autonomous code at certain points, rather than have it run continuously the entire time.

Example implementation:

class Sandbox():
    def __init__(self) -> None:
        self.enabled = False
        
    ...
        
    def on_autonomous_message(self, payload: dict) -> None:
        self.enabled = payload["enable"]
        
    def autonomous_code(self) -> None:
        if self.enabled:
            do_stuff()

MQTT Explorer Window

The MQTT Explorer window is a debug console that shows all of the MQTT messages being sent by the software running on the drone. The relevant topics and data structures needed to write your own autonomous software is covered in the README of the Phase II repository: https://github.com/bellflight/VRC-2021-Phase-II/blob/main/README.md

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