Introduction

This document describes Flockwave, the communication protocol used in the Skybrush ecosystem between the server component and the connected clients.

Flockwave is a JSON-based communication protocol in CollMot Robotics’s distributed UAV flock system that allows multiple ground control consoles (clients) and tailor-made third-party applications to monitor and control an airborne flock of UAVs via a central ground station (server).

The document outlines the key actors in the system and specifies the communication protocol in detail. The document assumes familiarity with JSON and standard networking concepts such as TCP streams, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and WebSockets. Details of the JSON format can be found in RFC 4627 and ECMA 404.