Status¶
Last updated 2026-10-11. The table below is counted from the plan's checkboxes every time the site builds, so it's always current. The rest of the page is a written summary: update it with the progress log.
Progress by phase¶
| Section | Done | In progress | To do | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 0: Requirements, regulations, budget | 1 | 0 | 5 | ██░░░░░░░░ 17% |
| ↳ 1a: Frontend against MockLink | 21 | 0 | 2 | █████████░ 91% |
| ↳ 1b: SITL + drone agent | 12 | 0 | 8 | ██████░░░░ 60% |
| ↳ 1c: Server + real link | 7 | 1 | 3 | ██████▒░░░ 64% |
| ↳ Link slice on a Raspberry Pi 5 | 6 | 0 | 4 | ██████░░░░ 60% |
| Phase 2: Air unit on the bench | 0 | 0 | 8 | ░░░░░░░░░░ 0% |
| Phase 3: Airframe build and tuning | 0 | 0 | 4 | ░░░░░░░░░░ 0% |
| Phase 4: Autonomous missions from the browser, VLOS with a safety pilot | 0 | 0 | 5 | ░░░░░░░░░░ 0% |
| Phase 5: Hardening | 0 | 0 | 12 | ░░░░░░░░░░ 0% |
| All | 47 | 1 | 51 | █████░░░░░ 47% |
█ done · ▒ in progress · ░ to do
Where things stand¶
The software is ahead of the hardware, as planned. Phase 1 runs end to end against the real flight-control firmware: the browser plans a mission, uploads it through WebRTC to the Go agent, the agent writes it to ArduPlane SITL, and the browser arms, starts, pauses, resumes, RTLs and lands it. Three SITL tests prove that on every run. No hardware has been bought yet (Phase 0).
Done¶
done Operator console (1a): login, vehicle list, flight screen with 3D map, HUD, video, link quality, event log, RC override banner; mission planner with waypoints, loiters (laps or until a time of day), VTOL land or RTL ending, inline validation including the fence; preflight checklist gating arm; hold-to-confirm commands. Laptop layout.
done Operator awareness: flight progress with time left and the way home, failsafe and stale-telemetry banners, command feedback with reasons for disabled buttons.
done Gimbal, free fly, battery and weather (in the console and the mock; the agent is next): gimbal line of sight and click-to-lock, free fly from the map, the drone returning home on its battery estimate with warnings before it, wind and rain on the map with wind-aware estimates (ADR-0023 to ADR-0026).
done Mac app (ADR-0027): Ground Control, an Electron shell on the same web build, updated over the air by every deploy and able to start offline. The web app stays first-class.
done Camera switching (ADR-0029, mock only): pick the gimbal or an aux camera for the live stream from the video panel.
done Path colours and coverage (ADR-0028): the trail and route coloured by wind, cell signal, height or speed; cell signal in telemetry, simulated by the mock and remembered from flight to flight.
done Mission planning tools: height profile over real terrain with clearance warnings, distance and time at ArduPlane's figures, and Follow terrain at X m (ADR-0021).
done In-browser mock drone and mock-agent: the whole UI was built against it; it now also reports simulated LTE conditions. Public demo on Cloudflare.
done ArduPlane SITL (Plane 4.7.1 QuadPlane) in Docker, with the project's failsafe params and two FC Lua scripts: clock-mode loiters (loiter_until.lua) and pauses that can't strand the aircraft and rejoin the planned leg (pause_resume.lua).
done Server authentication (ADR-0030, not yet deployed): argon2id logins with session cookies, missions stored on the server, drones proving their own Ed25519 key on connect, and session tokens the server signs and the agent checks before answering a browser; finished flight logs uploaded to the server. The SITL tests run with real keys.
done Go agent against SITL: MAVLink2 link, mode mapping, command whitelist, mission and fence upload with readback, RC override from the mode switch itself, start only with the switch at AUTO, and a fsynced flight log of every command, upload, FC event and state sample.
done WebRTC link: Go + Pion agent on a Raspberry Pi 5 stand-in, signalling relay, WebRtcLink; proven on a LAN (5–13 ms RTT, 720p). From a phone hotspot there's no direct IPv4 path (symmetric carrier NAT), so IPv6 end to end is the intended direct path and TURN is on hold (ADR-0015).
Next up¶
next Finish 1b : Tune the mock to SITL (25 m/s cruise, waypoint-reached and RTL-altitude behaviour). More SITL scenarios: browser closed mid-mission, agent killed mid-flight, mission changed from another ground station. The slow check that a pilot's LOITER isn't time-limited (ADR-0020). Video test pattern in SITL mode. Go protocol types held to the zod schemas by tests.
next Phase 1c: the real server (ADR-0030; logins, missions, drone keys, signed session tokens, flight-log upload and the deployment bundle done)
: Still to do: choose a VPS and bring deploy/ up on it. That unlocks the Phase 1 exit test: a phone on mobile data, through the VPS, flying SITL.
next 1a loose ends
: A deliberate Chrome laptop check. (Done: the fault-injection panel, the menu's Simulator section, and the Playwright smoke test against the mock, npm run e2e.) Phone layout stays deferred.
Waiting on hardware or decisions¶
waiting Phase 0 decisions: country rules, airframe, BOM (the flight controller is decided: the F405 Wing V2 for the bench and RC tuning, an H743 before browser-flown missions, ADR-0002), VPS, data SIM. See open questions.
waiting Real-SIM link test: the Pi on an IPv6-capable SIM and modem, checking the carrier allows inbound IPv6 between mobiles: the key test for ADR-0015.
waiting Phases 2–5: air unit on the bench (Orange Pi 5, modem, cameras, UART to the FC), airframe build and tuning under RC, VLOS missions from the browser with a safety pilot, then hardening.
Known gaps¶
- Planner estimates use SITL's figures, not the real airframe's; battery estimates use a placeholder endurance (2000 s) until Phase 3 data exists.
- Gimbal lock, free fly and the battery return run in the mock only: the agent rejects their commands, and the battery-return Lua script is still to write and prove in SITL.
- Follow terrain is done by the planner, between waypoints only; ArduPlane's own terrain following (which also covers RTL) is a later ADR.
- The mock still flies differently from ArduPlane in places (cruise speed, waypoint radius, RTL altitude): listed in the MAVLink mapping.
- Authentication isn't deployed yet (Phase 1c): logins, drone keys and signed session tokens work locally and in the SITL tests;
deploy/runs locally in Docker but hasn't run on a VPS yet. The vehicle list is still fixed in the web app rather than read from the server's registry, and an expired session doesn't send the console back to the login screen. SeeSECURITY.mdin the repository root.