PLOTS - Ground Station Software

A desktop GUI application for Live Flight Telemetry Analysis intended for the PL-26 Launch Vehicle Rocket, developed for the Unity Rise University of Liverpool Rocket Team (2025-26 launch).

Project Context

• Project Title: LASER - PLOTS (Live Telemetry Ground Station)
• Launch Vehicle Rocket: PL-26 (Unity Rise, 2025-26)

What This Software Does

The PLOTS Ground Station is an interactive, real-time dashboard designed to receive, log and visualise live flight data transmitted via RF from the PL-26 LIFTS onboard avionics system. It provides:

• Real-Time 2D Plotting: Interactive live graphs for altitude, velocity and RSSI telemetry data over time.
• Dynamic 3D Spatial Visualisation: * Live 3D trajectory plot tracking INS relative position (X, Y, Z).
  • Real-time 3D rocket attitude rendering using a loaded .stl launch vehicle model driven by live flight quaternion data.
• Geospatial Tracking: An offline-capable Leaflet map that tracks the rocket's GPS path, supported by an internal local tile directory for remote launch sites.
• Automated Data Logging: Instantaneous background writing of the live incoming telemetry stream to dynamically sequenced CSV backup files (Ground_Station_Flight_Data_X.csv).
• Mission Status: Live flight phase logic evaluation, max apogee tracking, stream rate monitoring (Hz), hardware arming status, VEGA Rideshare experiement status...

Runtime Architecture

The software is built in Python using a synchronous UI architecture designed for rapid, low-latency telemetry updates (30ms intervals):

• GUI Framework: PySide6 (Qt) for the main application layout, stacked 3D visualisers and UI elements.
• 2D Graphics: matplotlib integrated via FigureCanvasQTAgg, globally styled with the custom Orbitron font for high-performance telemetry plotting.
• 3D Graphics: pyqtgraph.opengl and numpy-stl for rendering and transforming the 3D launch vehicle orientation matrix.
• Mapping Subsystem Interface: QWebEngineView injects HTML/JS for Leaflet.js, utilising absolute local file paths to render map tiles without an active internet connection.
• Hardware Interface: pyserial handles the direct UART serial communication buffering and decoding from the RF ground receiver.

Data Inputs

Live Serial Stream (UART)

The software expects a live serial connection (e.g., /dev/ttyACM0 or COM3) operating at a 115200 Baud Rate. It parses a 13-value comma-separated string transmitted by the LIFTS avionics system.

Expected indexed values per packet:

1. Timestamp
2. Alt (Meters - converted internally to Feet for UI)
3. Veloc (m/s)
4. Lat (Decimal Degrees)
5. Lon (Decimal Degrees)
6. qR, qI, qJ, qK (Orientation Quaternions)
7. insX, insY, insZ (Inertial Navigation Relative Position in Meters)
8. RSSI (Signal Strength in dBm)

Repository Structure

pl26-groundstation/
|- Assets/
|  |- rocket.stl
|  |- LASER_Logo.png
|  |- unityrise_logo.png
|  |- uol_logo.png
|  |- Orbitron-VariableFont_wght.ttf
|  |- PLOTS_Sample_IMG.png
|- Data/                   #Dynamically generated CSV flight logs
|- tiles/                  #Offline OpenStreetMap tiles (auto-generated)
|- venv/
|- leaflet.css             #Local map dependency
|- leaflet.js              #Local map dependency
|- PLOTS.py                #Main application source code      
|- README.md