ROS-MAGNA, a ROS-based framework for the definition and management of multi-UAS cooperative missions

This paper presents a general framework for the definition and management of cooperative missions for multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) based on the Robot Operating System (ROS). This framework makes transparent the type of autopilot on-board and creates the state machines that control the behaviour of the different UAS from the specification of the multi-UAS mission. In addition, it integrates a virtual world generation tool to manage the information of the environment and visualize the geometrical objects of interest to properly follow the progress of the mission. The framework supports the coexistence of software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop and real UAS cooperating in the same arena, being a very useful testing tool for the developer of UAS advanced functionalities. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first framework which endows all these capabilities. The paper also includes simulations and real experiments which show the main features of the framework.