Glossary

Relative altitude above ground level (usually measured by down-looking proximity sensors)

Relative altitude above home level (usually inferred from pressure sensor measurements)

Absolute altitude above mean sea level (usually measured by GNSS devices)

The drone ID is a fixed unique physical ID that allows the permanent identification of the drone in the swarm. It is different from the show ID, which is a temporary value defining which show trajectory a given drone is assigned to.

Earth-centered Earth-fixed coordinate system (used by GNSS base stations and RTK correction signals)

Local map orientation defines the direction of the positive x-axis of the relative (local flat Earth) coordinate system (usually in degrees clockwise from North (0=North, 90=East, 180=South, 270=West)). Local map orientation together with local map origin can be used to measure distances and orientations on the map view, or to express drone coordinates in human-readable meters from the origin along specific directions instead of absolute coordinates.

Local map origin is a set of geodetic coordinates (latitude, longitude), defining a convenient relative (local flat Earth) coordinate system for all kinds of measurement needs. Local map origin together with local map orientation can be used to measure distances and orientations on the map view, or to express drone coordinates in human-readable meters from the origin along specific directions instead of absolute coordinates.

The low level firmware of the drones provides different flight modes, which determine the overall behaviour of the drones. Such flight modes are position hold, return to home, land, or show (which is our custom mode for executing drone shows).

Ground control station

The correspondence between physical drones (drone IDs) and mission trajectories (show IDs).

See Drone ID.

Return to home

Real-time kinematic (positioning)

Server time is the actual absolute time of the Skybrush Server. Server time should be synchronized to UTC in the preferred time zone at all times. Server time is displayed in the Clocks panel (abbreviated as SRV in the list of clocks).

The custom flight mode in which drone shows are executed.

Each drone has a permanent physical ID (sometimes named as drone ID) and a mission-specific show ID. The latter one defines which show trajectory is assigned to the given drone in the actual swarming flight. Show ID representations are always preceeded with an 's' to avoid confusion (e.g. s05).

Show orientation defines the direction of the positive x-axis of the show coordinate system (usually in degrees clockwise from North (0=North, 90=East, 180=South, 270=West)). If show orientation is changed, the show trajectories will be rotated with its value around the show origin.

The show origin is a set of geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude), defining the absolute origin of the show. If show origin is moved, the whole show will move with it, accordingly. Show origin should be setup together with show orientation to get the proper placement of your show on the actual field.

Show time is a time instance relative to the start of the show. It can be negative (before the show) or positive (after the show started). Show start can be setup in the Show control to a predefined absolute time value. Show time is displayed in the Clocks panel (abbreviated as SHOW in the list of clocks).

Skybrush Server is the backend part of Skybrush that connects to your drones, your RTK base station and other hardware accessories that might be needed for your missions. It ensures the smooth communication between all hardware elements and the connected Skybrush Live or Skybrush Sidekick clients. Skybrush Server is either running on the same computer as one of the clients or on a dedicated local HW device or in the cloud.

.skyb stands for Skybrush Binary format. It is our size-optimized compressed binary format of an entire show definition for a single drone. The .skyc show file format gets converted into several .skyb files - one for each drone - by Skybrush Server. The .skyb format is supported by all autopilots for which we provide a custom firmware (such as ArduCopter or Crazyflie).

.skyc stands for Skybrush Compiled format. It is our most common show definition file type that contains all information related to a drone show (all drone trajectories and light animations, pyro events, suggested geofence definitions, music, designer notes to the operators etc.). The .skyc format is fully supported by Skybrush Studio, our standalone show designer suite, but we provide .skyc exporter plugins for most of the well-known animation softwares (Blender, 3DSMax, Maya, Houdini). If your used designer software is not on the list, please contact us and we will create a plugin for you!