Missions

A mission describes the behaviors a vehicle follows to accomplish a goal.

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What Is a Mission?

A mission is the overall plan for a vehicle. It combines individual modes into a larger behavior, such as taking off, navigating to a destination, delivering a payload, and landing.

Each mode is responsible for one behavior. The mission is responsible for connecting those behaviors and deciding what should happen after each one. This lets the same mode participate in many different missions without knowing what came before it or what should come after it.

How a Mission Progresses

A mission begins with a starting mode. While that mode is active, it performs its behavior and reports an outcome. The mission uses that outcome to select the next mode. This process repeats until the mission is complete or cannot continue safely.

A simplified mission might look like this:

yaml

modes:
  start:
    mode: uav.vtol.TakeoffMode
    transitions:
      complete: navigate

  navigate:
    mode: uav.NavGPSMode
    transitions:
      complete: land

  land:
    mode: uav.LandingMode

Note

Mode parameters are omitted here to keep the focus on how the behaviors connect.

The Mode Manager executes the plan described by the mission. It begins with start and activates the takeoff mode. When takeoff reports "complete", the mission directs the Mode Manager to activate navigate. The same process moves the mission from navigation to landing, and the mission finishes once landing is complete.

For a complete mission file and implementation details, see Creating a Mission.