Preface
This is the launch of our brand new “Meet the Contributor” interview series on PX4 blog. The motivation behind this is to share the stories of the contributors from our global ecosystem.
Have you sometimes wondered “who is this person behind this GitHub avatar?”. Know what? You aren’t alone in feeling this way. At PX4 DevSummit in June this year, some of the developers who have collaborated for years had the first chance to meet in person. We’d love to bring out more of those true personalities behind the GitHub handles, for you to learn more about the Humans of PX4.
Meet the Contributor
Questions
Can you tell us the story of how you got into PX4?
I started working with PX4 in 2014 while I was developing the project of my MSc thesis. At that time, I worked with Vladimir Ermakov developing some of the features of MAVROS to interface with PX4.
What company do you work for and what’s your “day role”?
I’m actually from the military: I’m a Signals Captain in the Portuguese army. My current day role is full-stack web development for some of the web apps and platforms that the Portuguese army use. I am also a freelancer and I do consultancy and open-source software development based on PX4 and ROS for several companies around the world.
What is your current project based on PX4?
Personal: Indoor and outdoor autonomous navigation and exploration based on vision sensors input. For clients: development of and over BLVOS long range heavy payload vehicles, autonomous indoor navigation and obstacle avoidance, autonomous warehouse inspection and inventorying, computer vision engineering, among others.
What is your professional and educational background?
I’m a MSc in Electrical and Computers Engineering, which was done in both Technical Institute of Lisbon (IST-UL) and the Portuguese Military Academy. I am a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) as well and have done several courses regarding micro-controllers, soft electronics, robotics and artificial intelligence.
What is your “area of expertise” within PX4?
Communication architecture, computer vision, ROS (MAVROS)/ ROS2 / Fast-RTPS / DDS interfacing, general PX4 middleware architecture, sensor integration.
What is the most unique thing you have done in drones/robotics?
Everyday exploration and development with PX4 is something remarkable!
What is your current favourite setup for development kit?
Pixhawk 4 / Pixracer, PX4 upstream firmware, ROS/ROS2/Fast-RTPS, QGC.
What languages do you speak?
Portuguese (native), English (fluent), Spanish (basic-intermediate).
Where are you from and where did you grow up?
I am from Portugal. I was born in São Miguel, Azores. I always lived near Lisbon, the capital.
What advice would you give to fellow drone developers who just joined the PX4 community?
Be curious, ask questions, research, do things, issue PR’s, be autonomous and responsible!