DRAFTFIG. DRONE-GCS-01

UNDER DEVELOPMENTRust + TokioTauri v2 DesktopMAVLink v2ArcSwap Lock-Free

WebRTC MediaMTX (<300ms)PMTiles Offline Map (60 FPS)<220 MB RAM

KESTREL - UAV Flight Control

1. the problem

Legacy ground control stations (such as QGroundControl and Mission Planner) run monolithic Qt/C++ or 1.2 GB Electron runtimes where 1080p video decoding, high-rate telemetry, and vector maps share process threads. A video stall or garbage-collection pause during landing can freeze vehicle telemetry: decoupling flight-critical MAVLink communications from presentation via a 4-tier process topology in Rust and Tauri v2.

INTERACTIVE PIPELINESWIPE ⇄Click any box to inspect architecture

STAGE 01 // Physical Transport Ingestion
ROLE: Non-blocking serial (FTDI/CP210x), UDP (14550), and TCP (5760) asynchronous workers running on dedicated Tokio runtime threads.
// Non-blocking asynchronous serial transport loop
let mut port = tokio_serial::new(&port_path, baud_rate).open_native_async()?;
let mut buf = vec![0u8; 4096];
loop {
    let n = port.read(&mut buf).await?;
    if n > 0 {
        framing_tx.send(Bytes::copy_from_slice(&buf[..n])).await?;
    }
}
INVARIANT: Zero serial baud rate stalls: Transport I/O decoupled from parser queue.
FAILURE GUARD: Watchdog supervisor triggers auto-reconnect with exponential backoff on USB drop.

2. what i built

High-reliability UAV ground control systems architecture in Rust, Tokio, and Tauri v2:

Rust + Tokio async transport loop

MAVLink v2 CRC-16 validator

ArcSwap lock-free state cache

50 Hz packed binary ring buffer

Tauri v2 native webview shell

MediaMTX WebRTC video sidecar

PMTiles 60 FPS offline vector map

PX4 & ArduPilot mode normalizer

Backend-enforced arming safety gates

2.5s command ack watchdog timeout

Dockerized SITL simulation tests

Sub-220 MB RAM active footprint

3. problems i had to crack

Click card to view root cause & code diff

A50 hz json bridge saturation

▼ DIFF

Legacy Electron and Qt GCS architectures serialize full JSON trees across IPC at 50 Hz, triggering severe garbage-collection pauses (60-120 ms) and UI micro-stutters during landing. Fix: Replaced JSON IPC with a packed flat-binary float buffer streamed into a lock-free ring buffer.

Bvideo decode telemetry starvation

▼ DIFF

In monolithic GCS apps, 1080p H.264 video decoding stalls the main process thread, delaying safety-critical heartbeat processing and triggering false Failsafe RTL triggers. Fix: Isolated video into an independent MediaMTX sidecar communicating via local WHEP/WebRTC.

Cpx4 vs ardupilot mode divergence

▼ DIFF

PX4 and ArduPilot encode flight modes into conflicting custom mode bits inside MAVLink heartbeat packets, causing erratic mode switches when switching drones. Fix: Built a normalized Rust abstraction layer mapping raw bitmasks into canonical FlightMode states.

Dcommand replay on link recovery

▼ DIFF

When RF or USB telemetry drops mid-flight, naive command queues buffer takeoff or arm commands and replay them upon reconnection, causing hazardous unexpected vehicle reactions. Fix: Implemented a 2-phase verification engine with 2.5s watchdog timeouts and zero command replay.

FLIGHT SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE. Verified via Dockerized PX4 & ArduPilot SITL simulation environments.

PROJECT	KESTREL // GCS
DRAWN BY	BIDYA B. NANDA
STATUS	UNDER DEVELOPMENT // FLIGHT SYSTEMS

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