Overview

SokilLink Software Suite is a complete solution for unmanned vehicle operation. It runs on both ground and on-board PCs and delivers all the required features for modern drones. The software allows users to control their drones in manual mode, observe real time digital video from on-board cameras with telemetry displayed on top, control the cameras using exposed APIs.

The solution is extremely flexible thus it allows to customize each feature and easily add new ones. For example, a vehicle can carry more that one camera, making it more suitable for professional operations, when an operator should be able to see UAV flight direction and observable object at the same time.

It also comes with powerful logging and monitoring features which are very helpful for hardware development, performance monitoring and troubleshooting

Key features

• One digital data link for all kinds of data (video, telemetry, control)
• Digital video streaming
• Hardware video coding acceleration for low latency streaming
• Bi-directional telemetry streaming
• UAV/ UGV manual control using gamepad or other input device
• Connecting Ground Control Station software on a separate laptop
• Cameras control (start/stop recording, zoom, still shot, settings)
• Multiple cameras support
• Various camera types are supported: day vision, IR, thermal
• Multiple video streams support (limited by radio link throughput)
• Mesh networks support
• Multiple vehicles operation support (in Mesh and WiFi AP mode)

Commercial goal

While big drone market players have developed their own hardware solutions for drones, smaller companies often cannot compete with them because development of such features is usually a expensive task. SokilLink eliminates need of massive R&D efforts, making it much easier to build complex UAV solution.

Typical diagram

* items in light blue color are supposed to be controlled by SokilLink software

User Interface

Video output application

While most of applications are background services, thus have no user interface, this one is responsible for video output and telemetry drawing.
It uses hardware video acceleration so video feed is displayed with minimal latency

Configurator application

This application is aimed for software configuration and recording/displaying (real-time) system logs, what is very helpful during end product development and integration

GCS support

When you need to plan a flight mission or control your drone more precisely, it's always possible to connect a third-part GCS software. SokilLink implements transparent telemetry bridge so you can always connect to your drone with such well-known applications as Mission Planner or QGroundControl

Hardware support

Fully supported hardware

At this moment SokilLink is fully tested and supports next hardware:

Full setup

• Ground PC
  • Aaeon APL-1
  • Mikrotik R11E-5HacT
  • Logitech Gamepads (F310/F710)
• On-board PC
  • Ventana GW5510
  • Mikrotik R11E-5HacT
  • Kurokesu C1 Micro

Screen-less setup

• Ground PC
  • 8devices Jalapeno
  • Logitech Gamepads (F310/F710)
• On-board PC
  • 8devices Jalapeno
  • Kurokesu C1 Micro

Custom hardware

Since SokilLink Software Suite relies on standard Linux APIs it also may run on all variety of boards. Currently supported hardware modules:

• Platform
  • X86_64
  • i.MX6
  • IPQ4018
• Autopilot
  • Pixhawk/Pixracer (and other derived boards)
  • BetaFlight/ClearFlight (limited functionality)
• Wireless module
  • Qualcomm WiFi 802.11n/802.11ac PCIe modules
  • Other WiFi modules with nl80211 API support
• Camera
  • USB cameras with H.264 hardware encoding (e.g. Kurokesu C1)
  • Sony Camera API capable cameras
• Input
  • USB HID gamepad
  • Embedded HID module

Customization

Although the solution has support for all important features to build a modern drone, it is also highly customizable. Many other hardware (cameras, radio links, various payloads and even autopilots) may be supported on a request. Feel free to contact us if you need any kind of customization!