GrADyS-GS -- A ground station for managing field experiments with Autonomous Vehicles and Wireless Sensor Networks

TL;DR

GrADyS-GS is a flexible, reusable ground station software framework designed to manage, monitor, and store data from field experiments involving autonomous vehicles and wireless sensor networks, supporting diverse IoT devices and protocols.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamic, customizable software platform that facilitates data collection and experiment management for various IoT and autonomous vehicle applications.

Findings

Successfully used for UAV flights and data collection within the GrADyS project.

Supports design and testing of movement algorithms and communication protocols.

Flexible framework adaptable to different IoT devices and experimental setups.

Abstract

In many kinds of research, collecting data is tailored to individual research. It is usual to use dedicated and not reusable software to collect data. GrADyS Ground Station framework (GrADyS-GS) aims to collect data in a reusable manner with dynamic background tools. This technical report describes GrADyS-GS, a ground station software designed to connect with various technologies to control, monitor, and store results of Mobile Internet of Things field experiments with Autonomous Vehicles (UAV) and Sensor Networks (WSN). In the GrADyS project GrADyS-GS is used with ESP32-based IoT devices on the ground and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (quad-copters) in the air. The GrADyS-GS tool was created to support the design, development and testing of simulated movement coordination algorithms for the AVs, testing of customized Bluetooth Mesh variations, and overall communication, coordination, and context-awareness field experiments planed in the GraDyS project. Nevertheless, GrADyS-GS is also a general purpose tool, as it relies on a dynamic and easy-to-use Python and JavaScript framework that allows easy customization and (re)utilization in another projects and field experiments with other kinds of IoT devices, other WSN types and protocols, and other kinds of mobile connected flying or ground vehicles. So far, GrADyS-GS has been used to start UAV flights and collects its data in s centralized manner inside GrADyS project.