AirCruise GCS · Ground Control System

One ground station for the whole fleet

AirCruise flashes, configures, calibrates, plans and flies MAVLink vehicles from one desktop application, from a single aircraft to a swarm of dozens.

Request a demo See the features
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • macOS
  • Android
  • iOS
  • Linux Server
  • Oculus VR
Set up
01 · Firmware

Firmware in four steps

Detect, Firmware, Confirm, Flash: one guided flow takes a flight controller from an unknown state to a known build.

  • Online ArduPilot catalog, filtered by type, version and board
  • Local firmware files for your own builds
  • Image backups listed next to the catalog
Firmware dialog with the steps Detect, Firmware, Confirm, Flash and the ArduPilot online catalog
Firmware catalog with builds per board
02 · Configuration

Every vehicle setting in one window

Parameters, safety, transmitter, flight modes, OSD and VTX, HUD, video and onboard logs share one configuration window. Edits are staged first, then applied or reverted together.

  • Flight mode per switch position, drawn on the PWM strip
  • Channel functions next to live channel values
  • OSD layout editor: drag elements on a preview, with an overlap check
Modes section: flight mode per switch position and channel functions
Flight modes and channel functions
OSD layout editor with an element list, live preview and screen settings
OSD layout editor
03 · Calibration

Calibration that shows what to do

Each step names the position to hold and shows it on a 3D model of the vehicle, while a side panel reports what the sensor is measuring right now.

  • Accelerometer, gyroscope, level and compass
  • Radio wizard that records minimum, centre and maximum of every channel
  • Power, speed and ESC calibration in the same place
Sensor calibration with a 3D aircraft model showing the position to hold
Sensor calibration with a position guide
Radio calibration wizard with stick display and channel ranges
Radio calibration wizard
Fly
04 · Missions

Draw the area, get the mission

Outline a polygon on the map and AirCruise lays out the survey grid, builds a fence around it and checks the route against the terrain.

  • Survey grid generated from the polygon
  • Inclusion fence created from the survey area
  • Terrain profile with the minimum clearance along the route
  • Spline or straight waypoints, saved as route.plan or route.waypoints
Mission planning: survey grid over a polygon on the map, waypoint table and terrain profile
Survey of a 776.74 ha polygon: 144.52 km of route with its terrain profile
05 · 3D terrain map

Fly over real terrain

The 3D terrain map drapes satellite imagery over an elevation mesh and places every vehicle above it, from one aircraft to a whole swarm.

  • Satellite imagery on a terrain mesh, with AGL and MSL readout
  • Follow, HD, wireframe and a locator mini-map
  • Vertical exaggeration and a radio-link overlay (k = 4/3)
  • The same view for live vehicles and for log replay
3D terrain map with fifty simulated vehicles over a city, next to the 3D scene, the fleet list and the formation panel
Fifty simulated vehicles over Kyiv on the 3D terrain map
3D terrain map with satellite texture, a locator mini-map and one replayed vehicle
Satellite texture without the wireframe, during log replay
Video and HUD

Live video with a flight HUD on top

The video tab puts attitude, speed, altitude, battery, GPS state, flight mode and waypoint progress over the camera feed.

  • GStreamer video input
  • Telemetry appears only when the video is attributed to an aircraft
  • 2D map and 3D terrain map in the neighbouring tabs
Flight HUD with artificial horizon, speed and altitude tapes, battery, GPS and flight mode
HUD preview: armed, Loiter, 3D fix
Tune and analyse
06 · PID tuning

Tune with the spectrum in front of you

PID tuning has its own section in the vehicle configuration. The Spectrum tab shows what the gyro actually sees, so filters and gains are set from data.

  • Frequency × throttle heatmap for roll, pitch and yaw
  • Average spectrum and the highest lines above 10 Hz
  • The aircraft's own filter settings marked on the plot
  • A ready Roll PID plot set in log analysis
Spectrum tab: frequency by throttle heatmap for the roll axis with the gyro low-pass filter marked, and the average spectrum below
Spectrum of a flight log, with the 40 Hz gyro low-pass marked
07 · Log analysis

Replay a flight and read its data

Open a log and it becomes a vehicle in the fleet: it flies again on the map, on the 3D terrain and on the horizon, while the plots follow the same cursor.

  • Ready plot sets: battery and power, gyro filtering, roll PID, vibration, GPS
  • Motor and stick overlays, with minimum, maximum and average for the chosen window
  • Playback from 0.25× to 16×, with an analysis interval dragged on the timeline
  • Several logs open at once, .ulg and .bbl among them, and export to CSV
  • Live sensor graphs for connected vehicles
Log analysis tab: battery voltage, current and motor outputs plotted over time, with motor and stick overlays and per-signal statistics
Battery and power set with motor and stick overlays
Log replay: the logged vehicle on the map, playback controls and the analysis interval on the timeline
Log replay on the map, with the analysis interval on the timeline
Scale
08 · Swarm design

Design the formation before it flies

The 3D scene places every vehicle, draws the distance between pairs and reports the closest pair and the room left to the separation limit.

  • Planning mode with all pairs, only close ones or the nearest neighbour
  • Closest pair, room to the limit and the span of the whole group
  • Group ARM, DISARM and mode change from the fleet list
  • Saved formation profiles, with the command rate budgeted against the link
AirCruise main window: 3D scene with a swarm of vehicles and the distances between them, fleet list, live sensor graphs, telemetry and console
51 vehicles in the 3D scene: closest pair 70.8 m, 67.8 m left to the limit
09 · Relay

Control, telemetry and video, relayed onward

AirCruise can pass all three links of a vehicle on to another endpoint, not only terminate them at the operator's screen.

Vehicle
UAV or UGV
AirCruise GCS
relay point
Operator, station or vehicle
10 · VR control

Step into the airspace

In an Oculus headset the 3D map surrounds you: terrain out to the horizon and every vehicle in the air around you. Point at one, select it and take control.

Interactive illustration · move the pointer to look around, click a vehicle

Mobile

The same fleet on a phone

A touch layout puts the video full screen with the map in a corner, flight modes as tiles and the fleet one tap away.

  • Mode tiles: takeoff, Loiter, RTL, Land and more
  • Fleet panel with group ARM and DISARM
  • Landscape and portrait layouts

Android · iOS

Phone in landscape: full-screen video with mini map, compass and flight controls
Phone in landscape: full-screen map with the fleet panel open
Phone in portrait: video on top, map below
Platform

Built for the field desk

Desktop
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • macOS
The full ground station with every panel on this page.
Mobile
  • Android
  • iOS
Touch layout for flying and watching the fleet from a phone.
Server
  • Linux Server
VR
  • Oculus
The 3D map around you, with vehicles you select and fly by pointing.
Any link to the vehicle
Serial port, TCP, UDP or SITL, plus a demo mode with a built-in simulator.
MAVLink and ArduPilot
Copters and planes on ArduPilot firmware, addressed by system ID across the fleet.
Dockable workspace
Map, video, 3D scene, fleet, telemetry and console as panels you arrange, across more than one monitor.
Session guard
While a swarm is flying, the computer is kept awake and ending the session is refused.
Plugin core
Features load as plugins on top of the AirCruise core.
English and Ukrainian
The interface is available in both languages.
Demo

See AirCruise with your own vehicles

Tell us what you fly and how many. We will show the workflow from firmware to a flying group on a call or on site.