Case study · İkarus Aerospace

Ground
control stations
for the sky

İkarus is an aerospace community founded at Samsun University in 2017, working on UAVs, rockets and AI. I write the software that acts as the aircraft's eyes and ears: ground control stations that show telemetry, plan missions, log flights and count target lock-ons.

3Teams with a GCS
50 HzPilot HUD
5 sLock-on timer
🏅Award 2025-26
My role

From interface developer to captain

2025-26 season

Interface software

  • Built the ground control station interface.
  • Won an honourable mention award with the team.
2026-27 season

Captain and advisor

  • Interceptor Drone competition team captain.
  • Software advisor for the Combat UAV and Fixed-Wing UAV teams.
  • İkarus management board member.
Architecture

The data path from aircraft to analysis

The aircraft connects to the GCS over MAVLink; the GCS forwards raw packets to the pilot's phone and uploads the log to the team platform when the flight ends. On the Interceptor Drone, the lock-on module talks to the referee server.

UAVautopilot · camera GCSCombat · Fixed · Interceptormap · mission · log Pilot HUDiOS / Android · ham MAVLink UDP · 50 Hz Team platformflight archive · 3D replay · ERP · MES · CRM Referee serverlock-on validation · 10 s / 5 s timer MAVLinkUDP 14550flight loglock-on
Red: telemetry · green: commands · blue: flight log · yellow: lock-on
Modules

What I built

Combat UAV GCS

Telemetry, mission planning, flight logging and server upload.

Fixed-Wing UAV GCS

A separate station for the fixed-wing aircraft, connected to the same server.

Interceptor Drone GCS

The Interceptor Drone station, adapted from the Combat GCS.

Lock-on & referee

Frame validity, lock timer and referee server communication.

Pilot HUD

A 50 Hz HUD + map app that listens to raw MAVLink UDP.

Team platform

Flight analysis, 3D replay, task board, calendar and KPIs.

Tactical GCS

Ground control station interface for tactical missions.

C4ISR Autonomous GCS

Simultaneous autonomous operation of reconnaissance and kamikaze UAVs; SITL-backed, TÜBİTAK 2242.

Mission modules

Modules for air defence, lock-on and kamikaze scenarios.

Up next

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