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The Ground Agent is a small Linux ground node that receives the drone’s long-range radio link and puts video and telemetry on the screens around it: a laptop browser, a phone, an HDMI monitor with a gamepad, or all of them at once. It is the ADOS Drone Agent running with the ground_station profile. Same install script, same code, same updates.

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What it does

  1. Receives the drone link. The ground node runs the WFB-ng radio receive path, so your laptop or phone never needs radio drivers.
  2. Serves video and telemetry. WebRTC (WHEP) for video, a MAVLink WebSocket for telemetry, and the agent’s own dashboard and cockpit over HTTP.
  3. Bridges to the cloud when you choose to. The default cloud posture is local only. Once you pick a cloud or self-hosted posture in setup, telemetry flows to the cloud relay over whichever uplink is active (Ethernet, Wi-Fi client or a cellular modem).

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How it fits together

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Ways to connect

Every client reaches the same endpoints on the ground node. Only the physical link differs. All of them can connect at the same time. One client at a time holds pilot-in-command (PIC); the others watch.

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Key facts

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One codebase, four profiles

You do not install separate software for the ground side. The agent has four profiles (drone, ground_station, workstation and compute), and the profile decides which services run. A ground station is a node installed with --profile ground_station. The installer’s interactive wizard also offers it as “This receives on the ground (Ground station)”. The installer does not guess from attached hardware. It uses the --profile flag, else the profile already recorded in /etc/ados/profile.conf, else drone. To change the profile of an installed node, run sudo ados profile set ground_station, which restarts the affected services itself. See Install the Ground Agent and Node profiles.

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Three deployment roles

A ground station runs in one of three roles. One node in direct mode, the default, covers most setups. When terrain blocks a single receive point, or you want a longer corridor or a backup receiver, two or more ground stations can share the receive job over a local mesh.
  • direct: single-node receive. The default.
  • relay: forwards what it hears from the drone to a receiver over the mesh.
  • receiver: the hub. Combines what it hears with what every paired relay forwards.
Pick a role compares the three. Mesh and distributed receive explains when a mesh is worth it.

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Next steps

Supported hardware

Boards, radios and the optional front panel.

Power and runtime

Size an external power source.

Install the Ground Agent

One command on a fresh SBC.

Set up a ground station

Reach the node, pick a role, pair.
Last modified on October 11, 2026