ArduPilot / ArduPilot/MAVProxy

No monitoring tool for EKF3 Affinity and Lane Switching available

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Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

For educational purposes I tried to set up some kind of monitoring for EKF3 affinity and line switching in ArduPilot/SITL/MAVProxy.
I asked ChatGPT for some help, however regularly it came up with obsolete commands and parameters (Thus I would be very careful to use ChatGPT for any inflight support of ArduPilot!!!)
Nevertheless it indicated an old module "ekf" in MAVProxy that would perfectly provide a kind of overview I had in mind:

Index Active IMU Baro GPS Mag Health Timeout Pos_Horiz/Vert Vel_Horiz/Vert Compass
0 Y 0 0 0 0 Good N Good Good Good
1 N 1 0 0 0 Good N Good Good Good
2 N 2 0 0 0 Good N Good Good Good

I couldn't find the module "ekf" in the respective Github MAVProxy repository. Would it still be available somewhere else?

The ArduPilot "EKF3 Affinity and Lane Switching" documentation also shows some nice examples for lane switching using a parameter "XKF4.PI" that however also is not available any more.

I think that the EKF affinity and line switching concept is a powerful tool to further enhance the reliability of ArduPilot in a multi-sensor environment. It seems however that after introduction of the concept developers made the attempt not to confuse users (just the EKF probably is some kind of mystery to many) and hide some nice tools from the development phase.

Proposal: For the more interested user monitoring tools for EKF affinity and line switching should be made available again!

Warning: Do not only rely on ChatGPT for support in a dynamically changing open source environment!

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by searching the MAVProxy repository for the old "ekf" module and reviewing the ArduPilot "EKF3 Affinity and Lane Switching" documentation, including references to XKF4.PI. Determine whether the requested monitoring data and commands still exist, then clarify the desired interface and supported parameters. Done means an agreed, maintained way to monitor EKF affinity and lane switching is implemented or documented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
cli, observability
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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