uav_comm: A Generalized Communication between the Robot Operating System and low-level Flight Controllers

This article presents a novel C++ template translation layer between the Robot Operating System (ROS) interface and a low-level control board, as a tool to be used by researchers developing robots to reduce time needed in writing code for new robots, to reduce vendor lock-in, and to increase interoperability between researchers low-level control boards. The last two named goals stem from the fact that research in automation of micro aerial vehicles has increased through the last decade and a need for standardization within the open-source community has risen if research is to remain vendor independent. A guide on how to design serial communication between low-level and high-level controllers is provided. Lastly, an implementation of the said translation layer was created to demonstrate its use.