Loco Positioning Protocol

The Loco Positioning Protocol (LPP) defines the messages send on the Loco Positioning System UWB radio to configure and use the system. There is two main class of messages: the messages used for ranging and positioning and the messages used for management.

The ranging messages are sent and received directly by the ranging algorithms in the Crazyflie and in the Nodes. The management message are sent by management tools like the Crazyflie client.

All ranging packet share the same format:

The two way ranging protocol allows a tag to measure its distance to an anchor. The protocol contains 4 messages, two are sent by the tag two by the anchor. The message sequence is as follow:

The time of flight is calculated using the formula:

TWR packet IDs

Format:

Format:

The optional management data can be any LPP management packet deemed useful for the tag. Currently this is used to send the anchor position from the anchor to the tag using the LPP Short anchor position packet

Format:

Format:

Report structure format:

typedef struct {
  uint8_t pollRx[5];      // R1 timestamp
  uint8_t answerTx[5];    // T2 timestamp
  uint8_t finalRx[5];     // R3 timestamp
 
  float pressure;         // Pressure measurement at the anchor
  float temperature;      // Temperature of the pressure sensor
  float asl;              // Above Sea Level altitude
  uint8_t pressure_ok;    // Not 0 if the pressure information is correct
} __attribute__((packed)) lpsTwrTagReportPayload_t;

The LPP short packets are management packet short enough to be sent using a single Crazyflie CRTP packet. This means that the payload part of an LPP packet should be smaller than 28 Bytes. This makes these packet also well suited to be transferred as extra data appended to a ranging packet (this is for example used for the anchor position packet).

LPP Short packet format:

LPP Short packet IDs:

Format:

struct lppShortAnchorPosition_t {
  float x;
  float y;
  float z;
} __attribute__((packed)); 

When sent using unicast to an anchor, the anchor will save the (x,y,z) position as its new position.

When appended to a ranging message, the tag uses the (x,y,z) position as the anchor position.