Help Shape the Future of Simulation
With the help of Kimberly McGuire, an Independent Contractor, the Dronecode team is gathering feedback to improve drone simulation for the entire open source drone developer community. Whether you’re just getting started, a researcher working on autonomous flight, or an engineer developing commercial systems, your input can make a difference.
Closing the Simulation to Reality Gap
The simulation ecosystem is fragmented. Developers struggle with installation complexity, performance limitations, and the biggest problem of all, real-world tests invalidating your simulation results. This survey aims to identify the most pressing pain points, feature gaps, and current preferences, so Dronecode can prioritize improvements and integrations from PX4 to make the greatest impact.
Your responses will directly influence which simulator integrations get improved or added, what new features are developed, where documentation and examples are strengthened, and how simulation tools evolve to support diverse use cases, from single-drone prototyping to swarm simulation, from hobbyist projects to commercial development.
What We’re Asking
The survey takes 10-15 minutes and covers:
- Your background and current simulator usage
- Hardware constraints and technical setup
- Feature priorities
- Technical capabilities (physics, rendering, hardware-in-the-loop)
- Usability (installation, interface, debugging tools)
- Advanced functionality (multi-agent simulation, ML integration, custom models)
- Your biggest frustrations and desired improvements
Questions are designed to understand not just what tools you use, but how and why, from the number of vehicles you simulate to whether you need photorealistic rendering, or real-time execution
Share Your Perspective
Your answers will help build better tools for everyone in the PX4 ecosystem and beyond. Thank you for your participation!
