Skybrush Server 2.26.0 is our latest backend component for controlling drone shows with even thousands of drones. The new server component brings new features and enhancements that make drone show execution as smooth as possible on every scale.
See highlights of the new version below.
OTA firmware updates #
Skybrush now support over-the-air firmware updates for ArduCopter-based flight controllers that support OTA updates themselves. The following autopilots have such capability currently:
- Pixel drones by LightDynamix
- Pixhawk 6X
- Cube Orange+
- MatekH743-based drones will have such support probably from ArduCopter 4.7
It is possible to add support for other drone types with a relatively straightforward procedure. Please contact us if you need such capability on your drone.
The OTA firmware update is available as part of the Professional Skybrush Live package.
Scalability for 1000+ drones #
By now Skybrush is being used by our customers with thousands of drones. We continouosly optimize performace to provide a truly scalable framework for such large scale operations. Latest code that supports large-scale drone shows include the following advances:
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We have refactored the server code to use a buffered queue for incoming packets to be able to handle sudden high load without issues even with several thousands of drones.
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When many sub-networks are configured at the same time, we do not send RTK packets to yet idle ones not to overwhelm drones with superfluous broadcast RTCM corrections.
Providing feedback #
For a detailed list of changes, see the official changelog or even browse the codebase.
Skybrush Server is open-core. If you like it, use it, and wish to continue using it, please consider a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a professional license. We will use your support to keep Skybrush alive in the future with new and new features that best suit your needs.
Please also give us feedback on our Discord server or directly in the Skybrush Server issue tracker on GitHub.
Thank you!
Cover photo by Aaron McLean on Unsplash