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Matthew R Aquin edited this page Mar 29, 2026 · 2 revisions

Early Adopters

What You Can Try Today

IronTrack is a high-performance headless CLI and networked daemon. There is no GUI yet (Glass Cockpit targets v0.6, Web Planning UI targets v0.7).

Four commands are currently available: terrain, plan, daemon, and ask.

Terrain Query

irontrack terrain --lat 49.2827 --lon -123.1207

What it does:

  1. Determines which Copernicus GLO-30 tile (DSM) contains the coordinate.
  2. Checks your local cache (%APPDATA%/irontrack/cache/dem/ on Windows, ~/.cache/irontrack/dem/ on Linux/macOS).
  3. If missing, automatically downloads the tile from the Copernicus AWS S3 bucket.
  4. Calculates EGM2008 geoid undulation (N) and returns orthometric height (MSL), undulation, and ellipsoidal height (WGS84).

Mission Planning

Area Survey (Photogrammetry)

irontrack plan \
  --min-lat 49.0 --min-lon -123.1 \
  --max-lat 49.1 --max-lon -123.0 \
  --gsd-cm 3.0 --sensor phantom4pro \
  --terrain \
  --output survey.gpkg --geojson survey.geojson

What it does:

  1. Generates a grid of parallel flight lines over the bounding box.
  2. Calculates nominal AGL required to achieve 3.0 cm GSD for the Phantom 4 Pro.
  3. With --terrain, queries the Copernicus DEM across all waypoints and automatically raises altitude where ridges or peaks would violate side-lap overlap or the GSD target.
  4. Exports a 3D GeoPackage (OGC standard) and RFC 7946 GeoJSON.

Sensor presets: phantom4pro, mavic3, ixm100, or supply custom parameters via --focal-mm, --sensor-width-mm, --sensor-height-mm, --image-width-px, --image-height-px.

Corridor Survey

irontrack plan \
  --kml corridor_centerline.kml \
  --corridor --corridor-lines 3 \
  --gsd-cm 5.0 --sensor mavic3 \
  --output corridor.gpkg

Generates parallel offset passes along a KML centerline with miter/bevel join handling and self-intersection removal.

LiDAR Mission

irontrack plan \
  --min-lat 49.0 --min-lon -123.1 \
  --max-lat 49.1 --max-lon -123.0 \
  --mission-type lidar \
  --prr 300000 --scan-rate 100 --fov 60 \
  --point-density 8.0 \
  --output lidar_survey.gpkg

Calculates swath geometry and flight speed from pulse repetition rate, scan rate, and target point density.

Advanced Options

  • Procedure turns: --procedure-turns generates Dubins path turns with clothoid transitions between flight lines.
  • Route optimization: --optimize-route applies nearest-neighbor + 2-opt TSP to minimize total transit distance.
  • Terrain following: --terrain adjusts AGL per-waypoint using Copernicus DEM data.
  • Export formats: --geojson, --qgc (QGroundControl .plan), --dji (DJI .kmz).

FMS Daemon (v0.4 Preview)

irontrack daemon --port 8080 --mock-telemetry

Starts the Flight Management System server with an Axum REST API and WebSocket telemetry stream. The --mock-telemetry flag generates synthetic GPS/attitude data for testing without hardware.

REST endpoints (under /api/v1/): mission creation, flight plan management, terrain queries, route optimization.

WebSocket: Connect at /ws for 10 Hz telemetry broadcast (position, attitude, active line, trigger events).

AI Assistant

irontrack ask "What GSD will I get at 120m AGL with a Phase One iXM-100?"

Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. Uses Claude for photogrammetry-aware Q&A grounded in IronTrack's sensor and geodesy models.

Visualization

  • QGIS: Open the .gpkg file. It includes a LINESTRINGZ feature layer with an R-tree spatial index.
  • GeoJSON.io: Drag and drop the .geojson file to preview 3D flight lines.
  • QGroundControl: Import the .plan file directly for autopilot upload.
  • DJI Pilot: Import the .kmz file for DJI enterprise drones.
  • Google Earth: The GeoJSON can be converted to KML/KMZ using standard tools.

Known Limitations (v0.3.1)

  • DSM Bias: Copernicus GLO-30 is a surface model. Reported altitudes include canopy. Clearance over forests may be understated by 2–8 m.
  • Rectangular Bounding Boxes or KML only: Arbitrary polygon boundaries from Shapefile/DXF/GeoJSON are coming in v0.7.
  • No real-time hardware telemetry yet: The daemon supports mock telemetry. Real serial GNSS integration requires the serial feature flag and is in active development for v0.4.
  • No wind-aware routing: Energy-weighted TSP and wind triangle corrections are planned for v0.5.
  • No GUI: The Glass Cockpit (Tauri 2.0) is targeted for v0.6.

Safe To Use For

  • Pre-flight planning and feasibility analysis.
  • Generating high-precision geodetic references.
  • Comparing GSD targets against terrain relief.
  • Corridor mapping with offset polylines.
  • LiDAR mission geometry and point density planning.
  • Route-optimized multi-line flight plans.
  • Testing daemon REST/WebSocket integrations against mock telemetry.

Not A Good Fit Yet

  • Safety-critical mission dispatch without independent validation.
  • Real-time in-flight FMS operations (daemon is functional but not field-validated).
  • Autonomous geofence enforcement (IronTrack is advisory only — PIC retains authority).
  • Legacy SRTM-only workflows.

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