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MAVLink

  • Software
  • Drones and boats
  • Library

MAVLink is a lightweight, header-only message library for communication between drones and ground control stations, built from XML message-set specifications called dialects.

Source on GitHub: github.com/mavlink/mavlink (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 2e2b6af (opens in a new tab).

Licenses

Code
LGPL-3.0-only (opens in a new tab)

Read by Robotheca from COPYING (opens in a new tab) (LGPL-3.0-only) at commit 2e2b6af (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

Copyleft: Modified source must be published.

What it does

  • Message-set specifications for different systems (dialects) are defined in XML files.
  • Python tools convert these XML definitions into source code for supported languages.
  • The reference C implementation is optimized for resource-constrained systems with limited RAM and flash memory.
  • Suited to applications with very limited communication bandwidth.
  • Includes Python scripts with examples and utilities for working with MAVLink data.
  • Generated C headers can be installed and used from cmake via find_package.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 2e2b6af.

Getting started

Difficulty
Intermediate

Maintenance

Status
Active: a commit in the last 90 days
Newest commit
12 Oct 2026 on master
Latest release
None published on GitHub

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

Links

Robots on Robotheca that use it

No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.

Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.