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The Drone Agent ships 21 board profiles. Each profile is a YAML file that tells the agent which SoC it runs on, which buses are available, which video encoders exist, and what hardware is attached.
Ready to install? Use the Flash Tool in Mission Control. Pick your board from the catalog, then copy the install command for it.

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Board profiles

The agent identifies the board from an optional /etc/ados/board_override, the device-tree compatible string and model, then /proc/cpuinfo. If nothing matches, it falls back to generic-arm64 on ARM hosts or generic-x86_64 on x86 hosts. The detection order is on HAL and tiers. Every board installs the agent on top of its stock vendor OS through the Flash Tool’s install command. The video codecs column lists hardware codecs from the profile; a board without a hardware encoder falls back to software encoding. The tier column is the profile’s default compute tier, which only matters for extensions that set a minimum tier. See HAL and tiers.

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For development and testing

Radxa ROCK 5C Lite A strong development and flight board: 6 TOPS NPU, VPU H.264/H.265 encode, up to 16 GB RAM. The GPU may be absent on the Lite bin; the agent probes it at runtime.
The ROCK 5C Lite uses a 31-pin 0.3 mm Radxa FPC connector for MIPI CSI, not the standard Raspberry Pi ribbon. Check camera compatibility before purchasing.

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For ground station use

Raspberry Pi 4B (4 GB or 8 GB) The Pi 4B is the recommended ground station board. It has proven RTL8812EU driver support for WFB-ng, a 40-pin GPIO header for the status display and front-panel buttons, USB ports for Wi-Fi adapters, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI output for kiosk mode. Its board profile declares the front-panel button pins. See Ground Agent supported hardware.

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For production builds

Rockchip RK3576 (reference design) A production-oriented SoC with a 6 TOPS NPU, H.265 4K60 encode, multiple MIPI CSI inputs, Mini-PCIe for a 4G modem, and USB 3.0. One board profile covers both air and ground configurations.

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For budget builds

Rockchip RV1126B A good option for cost-sensitive builds: hardware ISP, H.264/H.265 encode and a 2 TOPS NPU in a small package.

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Wi-Fi adapter for WFB-ng

The long-range video link needs a Wi-Fi adapter that supports monitor mode and packet injection. The supported chipset is the RTL8812EU. An RTL8812AU adapter is a different chip and is not the supported driver. The agent starts at 5 dBm and clamps to tx_power_max_dbm (15 by default); see WFB-ng TX power. The adapter runs in monitor mode on the 5.8 GHz band. It does not use normal Wi-Fi association. It broadcasts raw 802.11 frames using the WFB-ng protocol with forward error correction (FEC). Expect 1-3 km on stock antennas; much longer with a high-gain ground antenna and clear line of sight.
The RTL8812EU needs an out-of-tree kernel driver. The installer builds it automatically on supported boards (skip it with --no-rtl-driver on a node with no long-range radio). On a custom kernel, make sure the kernel headers are installed so the driver can build.

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Adding a new board

If your board is not in the list, the agent falls back to generic-arm64 (or generic-x86_64), tiered from detected RAM. To add a profile for it, follow Adding a new board.

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Next steps

Install Drone Agent

Install the agent on your board.

HAL and tiers

How detection works and how to add a board.

WFB-ng

Set up the long-range video link.
Last modified on October 11, 2026