User Alerts

This repository holds a database of ArduPilot User Alerts.

All User Alerts reported from 16/09/2020 (or later) are in this database. There is no guarantee that the database holds all User Alerts reported before this date.

User Alerts for ArduPilot

A User Alert is a formal report of an ArduPilot issue that may affect the safe operation of a vehicle. An "issue" is typically a bug report or GitHub Issue. "Safe Operation" is the ability of a vehicle to reliably respond to user commands in a timely manner AND the ability of the vehicle to reliably follow commanded actions in automated flight modes.

Examples of Safe Operation issues include:

• Corrupted packets in I2C bus locking up the flight controller
• Non-commanded disarming whilst in-flight
• Malformed stored waypoint causes vehicle to fly away whilst in AUTO mode
• Triggering of the watchdog reset whilst in-flight

Examples of issues which are NOT Safe Operation issues include:

• Sub-optimal parameter values that lead to poor navigation performance
• User error or misunderstanding of parameter configuration
• Issues that, if experienced, an average user would be likely to safely recover from

User Alerts will only be for ArduPilot software issues. Manufacturer hardware will not be included at this stage, although this may be reviewed at a later date.

The folders

The folders are organised as such:

• alerts (All User Alerts)
• examples (Examples of User Alerts file format. The "EX*.json" are valid files, the "BAD*.json" are not valid)
• scripts (publishing scripts)
• readers (examples or User Alert ingestion and display)

The file format

Each User Alert is contained in a single json file, in the "alerts" folder.

A template is available at template.json.

Field definitions are in the ArduPilot Wiki (add link).

Use pytest to check all alerts and examples for validity.

A json schema (alert.schema.json) is available for validity checking.

Process for releasing User Alerts

See ArduPilot Wiki (https://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/user-alerts-developer.html)

Notes for querying data (GCS, etc)

Simply querying the site (see below for URL's) will return a json array or javascript variable of all user alerts. These can then be filtered by the versionFrom, versionFixed, affectedFirmware and hardwareLimited fields to match with the user's autopilot and display any relevant user alerts.

There are URL's for both an example manifest (for testing purposes) and the actual user alerts manifest:

URL for example User Alerts:

• https://firmware.ardupilot.org/useralerts/examplemanifest.json
• https://firmware.ardupilot.org/useralerts/examplemanifest.js

URL for User Alerts:

• https://firmware.ardupilot.org/useralerts/manifest.json
• https://firmware.ardupilot.org/useralerts/manifest.js

Examples of reading User Alerts are in the ./readers folder.