MAVLink2gRPC
Welcome to the official documentation for MAVLink2gRPC — a high-performance, native bridge and code generator that exposes the entire MAVLink protocol as type-safe gRPC services using modern C++17.
MAVLink2gRPC is designed as a robust, type-safe alternative to REST-based bridges for professional UAV and robotics systems where low latency, low resource footprint, and compile-time API safety are critical.
Why MAVLink2gRPC?
While traditional MAVLink APIs rely on REST (like mavlink2rest) or complex client-side SDKs, MAVLink2gRPC leverages gRPC and Protocol Buffers to deliver:
- Schema-First Design: Entire MAVLink message sets are auto-generated into standard Protobuf files (
.proto), providing immediate type safety and auto-completion in all supported languages. - High Performance: Built using native C++17, delivering sub-millisecond bridge latency with extremely low CPU and memory footprints.
- Polyglot ecosystem: Build your ground station, telemetry logger, or cloud connector in Python, Go, Node.js, C++, Rust, or C# using standard gRPC code generation.
- Bidirectional Streaming: Efficient real-time telemetry streaming and command execution via gRPC server-streaming RPCs.
Key Documentation Sections
To help you get started quickly:
- Getting Started: System requirements, build instructions, and running the bridge daemon.
- Architecture & Design: Deep-dive into the code generator, the C++ message router, and data flow.
- gRPC API Reference: Explanation of
MavlinkBridgeservice definitions, filters, and payload oneofs. - Client Libraries: Importing and consuming the auto-generated stubs in Node.js and Python.
- Developer Guide: Modifying generators, adding custom dialects, and running tests.