Feature Request: QGC checks mission against vehicle parameters for feasibility

[Antiheavy]

One of the most common user complaints about QGC is the lack of feedback to the user when planning a mission (in the top 3 user complaints for us).

PX4 has an onboard "mission feasibility checker" that checks the mission AFTER it has been uploaded. This is a nice safety feature for the vehicle, but is very frustrating to users who spent a bunch of time planning a mission only to have it rejected with cryptic warning messages back from the autopilot as to why.

It seems to me that QGC has a lot of information in the downloaded parameters about if the vehicle will reject the mission or not. This list may not be complete, but here are a the most common/problematic PX4 parameters that could be checked against the mission live while planning: GF_MAX_HOR_DIST GF_MAX_VER_DIST MIS_DIST_1WP MIS_DIST_WPS FW_LND_ANG MIS_TAKEOFF_REQ RTL_TYPE (to see if a landing sequence is required)

Proposed approach:

• turn the mission item and partial line segment RED if they are placed with invalid settings (e.g. location, altitude, etc) based on a local version of the mission feasibility checker running in QGC in real time.
• The red coloring would be consistent with the red terrain altitude bars.
• There could also be a checklist summary somewhere that showed all mission checks green or showed which items where invalid/missing in red.
• A toggle in application settings could optionally block upload of a QGC invalid mission.

PX4 feasibility checker: https://github.com/PX4/Firmware/blob/master/src/modules/navigator/mission_feasibility_checker.cpp

[Antiheavy]

fyi @dagar @DonLakeFlyer

[hamishwillee]

That sounds cool.

• What should happen if planning a mission when you're not connected to any vehicles? Just allow the plan and then re-evaluate the mission after you connect?
• What if the user modifies the above parameters? Does the ground station have to watch them and recalculate?
• Suggest add GF_ACTION to list since if geofence action is only a warning I presume a mission is still valid.
• RTL_TYPE is not a blocker for mission acceptance, though I can see that it would be a useful hint to the end user. Especially on fixed wing (and again, when you create a mission you don't know what vehicle you'll be running on).

@Antiheavy - is there also a PR in place in PX4 to provide less cryptic upload fail messages. Working the problem at both ends makes sense.