Integrate Live ADS-B Air Traffic Data into MWP

[ValkyrieDomi]

Hi, first off, thank you for the amazing work on MWP! It's an invaluable tool for the community, and I truly appreciate the effort put into it.

I’d like to propose an exciting new feature: integration of live ADS-B air traffic data from ADSBexchange.com into MWP’s map interface. This would allow users to overlay real-world aircraft traffic onto their mission planning view, enhancing situational awareness and safety without requiring dedicated ADS-B receivers.

Why This Would Be Valuable:

Enhanced Situational Awareness:

Pilots, UAV operators, and mission planners could instantly see real-time air traffic in their vicinity, improving decision-making and flight safety.

No Extra Hardware Required:

ADSBexchange provides global, real-time aircraft tracking, removing the need for users to invest in or deploy dedicated ADS-B receivers.

Pre-Flight and In-Flight Risk Assessment:

Users can assess potential risks in their operational area before takeoff and dynamically adjust their missions based on live traffic data.

Useful for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) Operations:

Provides an additional layer of awareness for long-range UAV missions where knowing surrounding air traffic is crucial.

Integration Opportunities:

MWP could provide an optional map layer that fetches aircraft positions via the ADSBexchange API and displays them in real time.

Potential Implementation Approach:

Use the ADSBexchange public API to retrieve aircraft data based on the user's geolocation.

Implement an optional toggle in the UI to enable/disable the ADS-B overlay.

Display aircraft data with position, altitude, speed, and heading.

Consider configurable refresh rates to balance performance with real-time updates.

I believe this feature would make MWP an even more powerful tool for the community, offering a unique blend of UAV operations and air traffic awareness.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks again for your hard work and dedication to this project.

Valkyrie

"Concept Art:"

[stronnag]

Your concept looks almost exactly the same as the ADSB function that has been implemented in mwp for the last three years and is documented in the User Guide.

Most external services offer the streaming SBS1 protocol (mwp supports others as well). mwp also provides user defined (range, altitude) proximity alerts for general aviation.

If there is an additional protocol that you wish to see supported for ADSB please supply:

• A link to its documentation
• A data sample (if not freely available by public URI).

[b14ckyy]

I guess as long as you get the info for each craft that you would have on screen with a receiver should be sufficient.

technically, since we have no limit, you could also make 2 different calls. One for the GCS area and one around the main aircraft that is monitored via telemetry or MSP? Then you can also keep the radius smaller. maybe 10NM.

[stronnag]

mwp allows you to have as many "radar" sources as you wish (limited only by system resources and common sense). So you can "mix and match" as you like:

• Public (internet) ADSB aggregator
• Local aircraft (PicoADSB / PingRX / SDR etc) on the ground, on the model or both
• INAV Radar
• mwp's "telemetry tracker"

For GA, the only restriction is "last report wins" as the internal store is keyed on ICAO number.

[ValkyrieDomi]

I tried to run both ONE and LOL (with the same location and radius) in separate terminals and compare, ONE provides more aircraft than LOL

[b14ckyy]

for the Radius also a sane range should be considered. When you call for all planes in 250NM radius, the response is nearly 0.5MB each time. Might be a bit overkill :D

[stronnag]

Source, range and frequency will be user defined parameters.

[stronnag]

It just gets better: Seems that the existing SDR JSON format already implemented in mwp is almost the same as the AdsbExchange format (the initial array name is different, so that can be easily parameterised):

Trivial test program:

$ ./parse-adsbex  adsb.one
ADSBEX
 I:4078B8 pos: 50.663452 -1.779062 name: BAW3PB   hdr: 99 alt: 6835 spd: 198 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:42, lq: 0
 I:344698 pos: 50.772537 -1.160394 name: VLG72U   hdr: 217 alt: 7597 spd: 148 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:42, lq: 0
 I:406B83 pos: 51.056351 -0.971177 name: EFW6BS   hdr: 242 alt: 6378 spd: 130 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:42, lq: 0
$ ./parse-adsbex  adsb.lol 
ADSBEX
 I:4078B8 pos: 50.702545 -1.430078 name: BAW3PB   hdr: 67 alt: 6005 spd: 202 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:56, lq: 0
 I:344698 pos: 50.626007 -1.339103 name: VLG72U   hdr: 220 alt: 8214 spd: 177 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:56, lq: 0
 I:406B83 pos: 50.996720 -1.191406 name: EFW6BS   hdr: 242 alt: 7010 spd: 131 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:56, lq: 0
 I:40643A pos: 50.815771 -1.036606 name: EZY67MT  hdr: 358 alt: 10973 spd: 241 seen: 0.0 ts: 14:12:56, lq: 0

Expect something testable in the next day or two (will be announced in #197)

[ValkyrieDomi]

Awesome! Thank you for your time and effort! Looks great!

[stronnag]

Teaser ... (adsl.lol)