ARC Drone Delivery - Monorepo

This is the unified monorepo for Purdue's Autonomous Robotics Club (ARC) Drone Delivery project. All drone delivery subsystems have been consolidated here for easier development and collaboration.

📄 Documentation

Please refer to the Documentation folder for project docs, guides, and technical references.

📁 Repository Structure

arc-drone-delivery/
├── navigation-stack/     # Core ROS 2 Navigation Workspace (DD_Nav_WS)
├── onboarding/           # Tutorial and onboarding materials
├── avoidance-viz/        # Obstacle avoidance visualization tool
├── path-planning/        # Path planning and SLAM algorithms
├── obstacle-avoidance/   # C++ Intel RealSense obstacle avoidance
├── octree-generator/     # Octree generation for mapping
└── operations-website/   # Solid-start frontend operations website

🚀 Quick Start

Each subdirectory contains its own README with specific setup instructions. Here's a brief overview:

Navigation Stack

Path: navigation-stack/
Purpose: Core ROS 2 workspace for drone navigation, PX4 integration, and Gazebo simulation
Key Features: GPS global mapping, Nav2 implementation, PX4 flight controller integration
Setup: See navigation-stack/README.md

Onboarding

Path: onboarding/
Purpose: Comprehensive tutorial for new team members
Topics: Git workflow, ROS 2 basics, Gazebo simulation, publisher/subscriber patterns
Setup: See onboarding/README.md

Avoidance Visualization

Path: avoidance-viz/
Purpose: Visualization tool for obstacle avoidance verification
Setup: See avoidance-viz/README.md

Path Planning

Path: path-planning/
Purpose: Path planning algorithms including A*, D*, and Dijkstra
Language: C++
Setup: See path-planning/README.md

Obstacle Avoidance

Path: obstacle-avoidance/
Purpose: Real-time obstacle detection using Intel RealSense cameras
Platform: Windows with Visual Studio
Setup: See obstacle-avoidance/README.md

Octree Generator

Path: octree-generator/
Purpose: Generate octree representations for 3D mapping
Setup: See octree-generator/

Operations Website

Path: operations-website/
Purpose: Web-based drone operations dashboard with CesiumJS 3D visualization
Tech Stack: Solid.js, Solid Start, Material UI (SUID), Nhost, PostgreSQL
Features: Manual drone control, flight monitoring, delivery operations
Setup: See operations-website/README.md

🤖 AI Coding Assistants (Recommended)

To help you understand and contribute to this large codebase, we strongly recommend using AI coding assistants:

GitHub Copilot

• Free for students: Get a free subscription with your .edu email
• Sign up: GitHub Student Developer Pack
• Features: Code completion, chat, and explanations directly in VS Code

Google AI Pro (Gemini)

• Free tier: 1 year of Google AI Pro with your education email
• Sign up: Google for Education
• Features: Advanced code understanding, debugging assistance, and documentation generation
• Download Google Antigravity IDE and sign in

These tools are invaluable for:

• Understanding unfamiliar ROS 2 concepts
• Debugging complex C++ and Python code
• Learning the PX4 flight controller API
• Navigating this large monorepo structure

🛠️ Development Workflow

Prerequisites

• ROS 2 Humble (for navigation-stack, onboarding)
• Ubuntu 22.04 (recommended for ROS components)
• Node.js (for operations-website)
• Python 3 (for various scripts)
• Visual Studio (for obstacle-avoidance on Windows)

Building Components

Each component has its own build system:

• ROS packages: Use colcon build in the workspace directory
• C++ projects: Use make or Visual Studio
• Website: Use npm install and npm run dev

📝 Contributing

1. Create a feature branch from main
2. Make your changes in the appropriate subdirectory
3. Test thoroughly
4. Submit a pull request with a clear description

🧹 Monorepo Migration Notes

This monorepo was created on February 1, 2026 by consolidating 7 individual repositories:

• Removed 121 accidentally-committed build log files from navigation-stack
• Cleaned git history to improve clone performance
• Maintained logical separation of components in subdirectories

Original Repositories

• DD_Nav_WS → navigation-stack/
• DD_On_Boarding → onboarding/
• dd-avoidance-visualization → avoidance-viz/
• dd-navigation → path-planning/
• DD-obstacle-avoidance → obstacle-avoidance/
• dd-octree_generator → octree-generator/
• drone-delivery-website → operations-website/

⚠️ Important: Accessing Old Branches and Large Files

Specialized Branches Not in Monorepo: The following branches were not migrated to preserve a clean monorepo:

• DD_Nav_WS: px4, px4-twist, px4-test, nav2_implementation, teleop, gps_global_mapping
• DD_On_Boarding: simulation_dev
• dd-navigation: SLAM_Main
• dd-octree_generator: demonstration-of-bad-voxels
• drone-delivery-website: docker-testing, geography_point_change, supabase-integration

To access these branches:

1. Clone the original GitHub repositories: https://github.com/purdue-arc/[repo-name]
2. Checkout the specific branch you need
3. Cherry-pick commits into the monorepo if needed

Git LFS Large Files: The following large files are stored in Git LFS and were not included in the monorepo:

• Purdue_map.dae (977 MB) - Purdue campus 3D model
• purdue_map.gltf - Purdue campus GLTF format
• test_world.dae - Gazebo test world file

To access LFS files:

1. Clone the original DD_Nav_WS repository from GitHub
2. Run git lfs pull to download the large files
3. Copy them to your local monorepo if needed (they're gitignored)

📚 Resources

• Purdue ARC Website
• ROS 2 Documentation
• PX4 Autopilot
• Gazebo Simulation