Migrating from Pixhawk Pilot Support Package to UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots

Till R2018a, MathWorks^® provided support for the Pixhawk^® Pilot Support Package that has been used for developing Simulink^® models for the Pixhawk FMU using the PX4^® toolchain. From R2018b, the official hardware support packages – Embedded Coder^® Support Package for PX4 Autopilots (till R2020a) and UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots (from R2020b) – are available for download.

After you download UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots, you can migrate Simulink models that you developed using Pixhawk Pilot Support Package to the new support package.

Note

The UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots contains blocks that are not backward compatible with the blocks of the Pixhawk Pilot Support Package. However, you can replace the blocks in older models with the newer blocks and deploy the model using UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots.

Note

Before proceeding with the migration procedure, it is highly recommended that you take a backup of the existing Simulink model that you created using Pixhawk PSP.

The migration process involves the following steps:

Complete the setup and configuration activities of UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots using the Hardware Setup screens (see Setup and Configuration).
The new support package supports PX4 firmware version v1.14 whereas the Pixhawk PSP supports PX4 firmware version 1.6.5. Therefore, you also need to clone PX4 firmware v1.14 by following the steps mentioned in the Hardware Setup screens.
Launch Simulink and create a new model.
Open the Configuration Parameters dialog box and select the hardware (go to the Hardware Implementation pane and use the Hardware board drop-down list to select the Pixhawk board that you will be using to deploy the Simulink model). The new support package provides support for Pixhawk 1, Pixhawk 2.1, Pixracer, and Pixhawk 4 flight controllers.
If you are using a board that is not officially supported, select the PX4 Pixhawk Series option.
Copy the contents of the entire Simulink model from Pixhawk PSP to the new Simulink model that you created.

Replace the Simulink blocks for Pixhawk Pilot Support Package with the new Simulink blocks that are available in the new support package.

Use the following table to migrate the Simulink blocks to the new UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots, in R2018b and later releases.

Mapping of Simulink blocks in Pixhawk Pilot Support Package to UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots

Pixhawk Pilot Support Package Block	New Block in UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots	Documentation Links
uORB Write / uORB Write Advanced	PX4 uORB Write and PX4 uORB Message	PX4 uORB Write and PX4 uORB Message
uORB Read	PX4 uORB Read	PX4 uORB Read
Read uORB Function Trigger	<Not supported>
ADC	PX4 Analog Input	PX4 Analog Input
Serial	Serial Transmit and Serial Receive	Serial Transmit and Serial Receive
PWM	PX4 PWM Output	PX4 PWM Output
ParamUpdate	Read Parameter	Read Parameter
Sensor_Combined	Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Input_RC	Radio Control Transmitter	Radio Control Transmitter
Speaker Tune	This block can be modelled using uORB Write block and tune_control uORB topic. Refer to `px4demo_LEDBuzzer` Simulink model.
LED	This block can be modelled using uORB Write block and led_control uORB topic. Refer to `px4demo_LEDBuzzer` Simulink model.
Battery	Battery	Battery
Vehicle Attitude	Vehicle Attitude	Vehicle Attitude
Vehicle GPS	This block can be modelled using uORB Read block and vehicle_gps uORB topic. Refer to `px4_readGPS` Simulink model.	Reading GPS Data from PX4 Autopilot
Binary Logger	Refer to `px4demo_log` Simulink model.	MAT-file Logging on SD Card for PX4 Autopilots
Print	<Not supported>