What is a Ground Control Station (GCS)?

A Ground Control Station (GCS) is typically a software application, running on a computer on the ground that
communicates with your UAV via wireless. It displays real-time data on the UAVs performance and position and can
serve as a "virtual cockpit", showing many of the same instruments that you would have if you were flying a real plane.
A GCS can also be used to control a UAV in flight, uploading new mission commands and setting parameters. It is
often also use to monitor the live video stream from a UAV's cameras.
Note: APM defaults to a baud rate of 57600 baud on its telemetry port. Please set your 3DR Radio or Xbee modules
and GCS software accordingly.
APM is supported by several GCSs, with more coming. As they reach maturity, they will be added here (see menu
items at left). The current options are:

APM Mission Planner: Windows. This is the same utility that you will use for much of the APM mission setup.
It also includes a very good GCS.

QGroundControl: A powerful and highly customizable GCS from the academic team that designed the
MAVLink protocol that APM uses. Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Andropilot: Android (tablet/phone). Free app with both flight data and mission planning ability.

Droidplanner: Android (tablet/phone). Free app with both flight data and mission planning ability

Apm mission planner

The above is the main Ground Station view of the Mission Planner, showing the Heads-up Display (HUD). Once
you have connected via MAVLink over USB or wireless telemetry the dials and position on this screen will
display the telemetry sent by APM.
A few tips:

The map will only show current position when you have GPS lock or are using a flight simulator

Remember how artificial horizons work: when the aircraft tilts to the right, the horizon tilts to the left. (Just
tilt your head and youll see what I mean). This is normal! Please dont tell us its reversed
For APM: Plane status, the output meaning is as follows:

WPDist : Distance to next waypoint in meters

Bearing ERR: How far your UAV is from the perfect line to the next waypoint

Alt ERR: How far your UAV is from the target altitude

WP: Next waypoint to hit

Mode: Current autopilot mode.

APM: Plane output means the autopilots outputs on the first four channels

You can issues mode changes and other action commands in the air with the Mission Planner and other
GCSs, but note that you must be under autopilot control for them to take effect. When your RC toggle switch
is in the Manual position, you are no longer under autopilot control and no commands will take effect. You
must be in one of the other positions (Stabilize, Fly-by-Wire, Auto or any other autopilot-controlled mode) for
MAVlink commands to take effect.

You can change the voice used in the speech synthesis in the Ease of Access center in Windows Control
Panel. Go to the Text to Speech options.

If you double-click the HUD it will popout, allowing you to run the hud full screen on a second screen.

If you double-click on the Speed Guage you can modify the max scale you want to display.

If you enable the Tuning checkbox and double-click tuning you can graph any data that is available in the
status tab. This means you can have alt, attitude, or many other options in real time.

You can use custom imagery instead of Google Maps. Press control-F. This allows you to upload your
own orthophotos. Use will require Globalmapper, as this is currently one of the key steps in exporting in the
required format for use in the planner.

Loading Firmware onto APM

APM firmware is the brains of your autopilot operation, created and maintained by the dedicated open source
community. Downloading the latest firmware onto APM is an important part of first time setup and also useful
when updating APMs existing firmware. These instructions will show you how to download the latest firmware
.onto APM

Connect APM to computer

Once youve downloaded Mission Planner onto your ground station computer, connect APM to your computer
using the micro USB connector and APMs micro USB port. Use a direct USB port on your computer, not a USB
.hub. Click on images to enlarge

Windows will automatically detect APM and install the correct driver software. If you get a message stating
.driver not found, follow these instructions to download the software manually

Connect APM to Mission Planner

Next well let Mission Planner know which port were using to connect to APM. In Mission Planner, use the dropdown menus in the upper-right corner of the screen (near the Connect button) to connect to APM.
.Select Arduino Mega 2560 and set the Baud rate to 115200 as shown. Dont hit Connect just yet

Select firmware
Now well select which firmware to download to APM; this depends on the configuration of your craft. Select the
Hardware screen from the icons at the top of the display. Choose your copters frame by clicking the
corresponding icon: Quad, Hexa, Y6, plane, rover, or other. (Well specify + or x configuration later.) The
firmware screen will not appear if you have already selected Connect, so ensure that Mission Planner shows a
.disconnected icon in the upper-right corner to access the firmware

Once you select your frame, Mission Planner will automatically detect the latest firmware version for your craft
and prompt you to confirm the download. Select Yes to download the firmware onto APM. When the download
.status reads Done, your firmware download is complete

Connect to MavLink
Select Connect (upper-right corner of the screen) to load MavLink parameters to APM. Mission Planner will
.display a window showing the progress of the MavLink download

When the window displays Done and Mission Planner shows the Disconnect option in place of Connect, your
.APM firmware has been downloaded successfully

Planning a Mission with Waypoints and Events

Setting the Home Position
For APM:Copter the home position is set as the location where the copter was armed. This means if you
execute an RTL in APM:Copter, it will return to the location where it was armed, so arm your copter in the
.location you want it to return to

Video: Produce and save a Multi-waypoint Mission

Video: Load an already saved Multi-waypoint Mission
Note: When APM: Copter executes the Land command it will land from its current location. It will not fly
to a location, then land like the planes do. If you want to land at a particular waypoint, you must fly to a
normal WP, then the next command will be Land. The Absolute Altitude checkbox in the Mission Planner
.is ignored. ArduCopter only uses the default relative altitude

In the screenshot above, a mission for arducopter starts with an auto takeoff to 20 meters attitude; then goes to
WP 2 rising to 100 meters altitude on the way, then waits 10 seconds; then the craft will proceed to WP 3
(descending to 50 meters altitude on the way), then returns to launch. Since the default altitude is 100 meters,
the return to launch will be at 100 meters. After reaching the launch position, the craft will land. The mission
.assumes that the launch position is set at the home position

You can enter waypoints and other commands (see below for the full list). In the dropdown menus on each row,
select the command you want. The column heading will change to show you what data that command requires.
Lat and Lon can be entered by clicking on the map. Altitude is relative to your launch altitude, so if you set 100m,
.for example, it will fly 100m above you
Default Alt is the default altitude when entering new waypoints. Its also the altitude RTL (return to launch) mode
will fly at if you have Hold Default ALT checked; if you dont have that checked, your aircraft will try to maintain
.the altitude it was at when you switched on RTL
Verify height means that the Mission Planner will use Google Earth topology data to adjust your desired altitude
at each waypoint to reflect the height of the ground beneath. So if your waypoint is on a hill, if this option is
selected the Mission Planner will increase your ALT setting by the height of the hill. This is a good way to make
!sure you dont crash into mountains
Once you are done with your mission, select Write and it will be sent to APM and saved in EEPROM. You can
confirm that its as you wanted by selecting Read
You can save multiple mission files to your local hard drive by selecting Save WP File or read in files with Load
:WP File in the right-click menu

Geotagging Images with the Mission Planner

Geo-tagged aerial pictures are very useful for mosaic mapping as well as the creation of accurate 3D models
.from a terrain

The Mission Planner has a handy feature that will inject GPS data into your photos EXIF tags by using APMs
.telemetry log from a flight
This tutorial was created to show you how does it work. (Original work from Sandro Benigno and Guto Santaella
updated by Jesus Alvarez)
Mission Planner provides two methods for geotagging your photos from a mission log
A.

CAM messages from dataflash log

B.

Time offset (picture time log time)