ADOS Ground Agent
The Ground Agent is a small Linux SBC with a WiFi radio card that receives HD video from your drone and puts it on any screen you want. Your laptop browser, your phone, a monitor with a gamepad, or all three at once.
It runs the same ADOS Drone Agent codebase in a different profile. Same install script, same code, same updates. The hardware fingerprint at boot decides whether the SBC acts as a drone companion or a ground station.
What it does
The Ground Agent handles three jobs:
-
Receives WFB-ng video from your drone’s RTL8812EU transmitter at up to 50 km range. Long-range, low-latency HD video over 5 GHz, no internet needed.
-
Serves video and telemetry to any connected client. WebRTC for video (50-100 ms latency), WebSocket for MAVLink telemetry. Your laptop opens a browser, your phone joins the WiFi, or you plug in HDMI and a gamepad.
-
Bridges to the cloud when you want remote observers. Connect the ground node to WiFi, Ethernet, or a 4G modem and telemetry flows to Altnautica cloud automatically.
How it fits together
Four ways to connect
Every client talks to the same endpoints on the Ground Agent. The only difference is the physical link.
| Client | Connection | Video latency | Best for |
|---|
| Laptop over WiFi | Join ADOS-GS-XXXX hotspot | 80-100 ms | Bench testing, training |
| Laptop over USB-C | Plug in a data cable | 40-70 ms | Indoor lab, wired reliability |
| HDMI + gamepad | Plug monitor and controller into the SBC | Under 60 ms | Field flying, no laptop needed |
| Android phone | Join WiFi or plug USB-C | 50-80 ms (app), 80-120 ms (browser) | Mobile field use |
Key numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|
| Codebase | Same as ADOS Drone Agent |
| Profile | ground-station (auto-detected) |
| License | GPLv3 |
| WiFi AP | ADOS-GS-XXXX on 2.4 GHz |
| USB tether IP | 192.168.7.1/24 |
| Video transport | WebRTC WHEP |
| MAVLink transport | WebSocket |
| REST API | Port 8080 |
| Physical UI | 128x64 OLED + 4 buttons |
One codebase, two profiles
You do not install separate software for the ground side. The same curl | bash one-liner that installs the drone agent also installs the ground agent. On first boot, a score-based hardware fingerprint checks what is attached:
- OLED on I2C + GPIO buttons + RTL8812EU + no flight controller = ground station profile
- Flight controller on UART + GPS = drone profile
If the fingerprint is ambiguous, the OLED shows a pick-profile screen. You press a button and you are done.
You can always override the auto-detected profile by setting agent.profile: ground-station in /etc/ados/config.yaml.
Bench hardware
The simplest ground station is a Raspberry Pi 4B, an RTL8812EU USB WiFi adapter, a small OLED, and four buttons. Total cost under 10,000 INR (about $120). Add an HDMI cable and a gamepad for standalone flight without a laptop.
Production boards (Radxa CM3 Lite tier, Radxa CM4 Pro tier) are smaller, more rugged, and support features like antenna diversity and internal 4G modems.
What is next
