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UAS Tools Guide
Valmo Trindade edited this page 2026-05-09 22:50:00 -03:00
Table of Contents

UAS Tools Integration Guide

ARMATAK exposes the Arma 3 UAV currently controlled by the player as a MAVLink aircraft. UAS Tool receives normal MAVLink telemetry, camera metadata, video stream information and supported command messages over UDP.

The intended workflow is:

  1. Load ARMATAK on the Arma 3 client that will operate the UAV with the UAS Tool plugin loaded.
  2. Connect the ATAK EUD through ARMATAK's Connect to EUD action.
  3. Configure UAS Tool for MAVLink over UDP.
  4. Control or select a UAV in Arma 3.
  5. Use UAS Tool for viewing telemetry, selecting cameras, dropping POIs and sending supported actions.

What Works Today

  • UAV discovery in UAS Tool over MAVLink/UDP.
  • Stable UAV identity derived from the Arma entity UUID.
  • Callsign taken from the Arma marker callsign, falling back to the drone/module name when needed.
  • Video URI advertised through MAVLink VIDEO_STREAM_INFORMATION.
  • Battery percentage mirrored from the Arma 3 UAV fuel/battery value.
  • Armed state mirrored from the drone engine state.
  • Landed state based on low altitude and near-zero ground speed.
  • Home position initialized from the drone's first broadcast position.
  • Home position updates from UAS Tool when SET_HOME_POSITION or DO_SET_HOME is sent.
  • FPV camera and turret/gunner camera entries for drones that expose a separate turret camera.
  • Camera-specific telemetry for FPV and turret views, including gimbal yaw/pitch and camera FOV status.
  • Sensor point of interest data for UAS Tool POI workflows.
  • Mission upload from UAS Tool into Arma 3 UAV waypoints.
  • Basic action handling for arm/disarm, takeoff, land, loiter/orbit, move to point, return to launch/home, guided move, speed, altitude and heading.

Current Limits

  • Arma 3 UAV AI behavior is waypoint-driven, so fine autopilot behavior will not exactly match a real aircraft stack.
  • Turret camera behavior depends on the Arma vehicle exposing turret data that can be read from script.
  • A valid video stream still has to be hosted separately. ARMATAK advertises the URL; it does not magically turn the UAV camera into RTSP by itself.

Install UAS Tool on ATAK

  1. Open ATAK on the Android EUD.
  2. Open the ATAK plugin manager.
  3. Install UAS Tool for your ATAK version.
  4. Restart ATAK if requested.
  5. Confirm that UAS Tool is available from the ATAK tools UI.

If your ATAK build uses a managed plugin catalog, install UAS Tool from there. If your environment uses sideloaded plugins, install the matching UAS Tool package for your ATAK version.

Arma 3 Setup

Load ARMATAK

Load ARMATAK on the Arma 3 client that will operate the drone.

Optional 3DEN UAV Settings

On a vehicle object in Eden, ARMATAK exposes:

  • Marker Callsign
  • Marker Type
  • Video Feed URL

For UAVs, Video Feed URL is the most useful field. When set on the drone object, it overrides the session-level video URL from the EUD connection dialog while that UAV is active.

Connect the EUD

Use Connect to EUD and fill:

  • EUD's Address
  • Network GNSS Port
  • Mavlink Port
  • Video Feed URL (Optional)

Default values:

  • EUD's Address: Your Phone's local address
  • Network GNSS Port: 4349
  • Mavlink Port: 14550

The session-level video URL is used when the active UAV does not provide its own URL. If no URL is available, ARMATAK falls back to:

rtsp://undefined:554/fpv

ATAK UAS Tool Setup

  1. Open UAS Tool.
  2. Add a new platform with the + button if auto-discovery is not enough.
  3. Select:
    • Platform = MAVLink
    • Network Protocol = UDP
    • Port = 14550 or the custom MAVLink port entered in ARMATAK
  4. Select the discovered ARMATAK UAV.
  5. Confirm that the camera list, telemetry and video URI are populated.

ARMATAK also advertises a _mavlink._udp mDNS service on the LAN, but manual setup may still be required depending on ATAK, Android and UAS Tool versions.

Camera Behavior

Driver-Only FPV Drones

Driver-only drones expose a single FPV camera in UAS Tool. The FPV camera follows the drone body orientation and projects a sensor point from the aircraft position and look direction.

Driver + Turret Drones

Drones with a separate turret/gunner camera expose two camera entries:

  • <callsign> FPV
  • <callsign> Turret

When the turret camera is selected in UAS Tool, ARMATAK reports turret/gimbal orientation and the independent sensor point of interest. This lets UAS Tool POI tools follow the turret view instead of always using the driver FPV view.

UAS Tool Actions

UAS Tool actions can be done with ARMATAK. Supported actions and command families include:

  • Arm / Disarm: toggles the Arma UAV engine and ARMATAK armed state.
  • Takeoff: moves the UAV toward the requested altitude.
  • Land: commands the UAV toward ground level and sets low flight height.
  • Return to Launch / Move to Home: moves the UAV toward its stored home position.
  • Move to Point / Guided Move: creates an Arma movement waypoint at the requested coordinate.
  • Loiter / Orbit: creates a loiter waypoint, including orbit direction when UAS Tool sends it.
  • Speed: applies an Arma limitSpeed value.
  • Altitude: moves the UAV to a new altitude near its current position.
  • Heading: applies a requested heading when provided.

Drop POI (Point of Interest)

Drop POI is a local UAS Tool/ATAK marker workflow. Can be activated using the Gestures menu on UAS Tool options. It helps by making a fast way to drop Markers to where the drone is pointing.

Home, Landed and Battery

ARMATAK initializes the UAV home position from the drone's first broadcast position. UAS Tool can later update it through supported home-position commands.

The landed state is reported as landed when the UAV is near ground level and moving slowly. This lets UAS Tool decide when normal disarm should be allowed without requiring force disarm.

Battery percentage comes from the Arma 3 vehicle fuel/battery value and is sent in MAVLink SYS_STATUS.battery_remaining.

Video Feed Behavior

The video feed ARMATAK advertises follows this priority:

  1. The UAV's 3DEN Video Feed URL, while the player is actively controlling that UAV.
  2. The session-level Video Feed URL (Optional) from Connect to EUD.
  3. Fallback: rtsp://undefined:554/fpv.

This allows per-drone streams, session-wide shared streams and a known fallback feed for testing.

Troubleshooting

Drone appears but UAS Tool says waiting for video URI

Check:

  • the UAV has a reachable stream URL
  • the URL is configured either on the UAV object or in the EUD connection dialog
  • the EUD can reach the host serving the stream
  • the active UAV is still the one being broadcast by ARMATAK

Drone does not appear in UAS Tool

Check:

  • the EUD IP and MAVLink port in Connect to EUD
  • that ATAK/UAS Tool is listening on the same UDP port
  • that the Arma client has ARMATAK loaded
  • that the player is connected to, operating or recently operated a live UAV
  • whether a firewall, VPN or different LAN is blocking UDP

Route appears in UAS Tool but no Arma waypoints appear

Check:

  • the UAV is selected and alive in Arma
  • UAS Tool actually uploaded the mission, not only saved it locally
  • the route points are not zero coordinates
  • the UAV terminal is looking at the same UAV group
  • armatak.log for MISSION_COUNT, MISSION_ITEM_INT and route logs

Drop POI opens marker customization instead of dropping

That screen configures what POI markers look like. Configure an actual UAS Tool controller, shortcut or video touch action to DROP POI, then trigger that action while the drone/camera is selected.

Turret camera exists but POIs use the FPV view

Select the turret camera entry in UAS Tool before triggering Drop POI. The turret entry is normally named <callsign> Turret.

ARMATAK

Arma 3 addon for streaming game data into the TAK ecosystem.

ARMATAK