Power of Visual Studio Code AI Copilot

[Sergei Grichine]

(Poor man's Obstacle Avoidance with QGroundControl - https://qgroundcontrol.com/)

I use QGC to plan my lawnmower's path, using Survey scans. When an obstacle (a tree) is in the middle of scan area, I need to plan around it. Usually a set of Surveys could do the job, but there's a better way. 

I asked Copilot to write a script for me:

"I have files in QGroundControl ".plan" format, containing Survey - a TransectStyleComplexItem. I need to flatten the Survey part, making all Items under it to become waypoints. Can you suggest Python code to do that?"

Here is the result:

(you can find sample surveys there, milchbuck_survey.plan for example)

Now, I can edit the scan (survey), for example - to avoid the tree in the middle:

Or, if I just need to adjust a waypoint - it is easier to do with the "flattened" plan.

It only took ONE PROMPT to solve this problem, no iterations at all. I didn't even look at the code, just ran it. All for free.

Is anybody still dreaming of a career in programming? ;-)

--

Best Regards,

-- Sergei

[Brian Higgins]

Interesting 

Brian Higgins

VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation 

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 18, 2025, at 11:52 AM, Sergei Grichine <vital...@gmail.com> wrote:



--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HomeBrew Robotics Club" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hbrobotics+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/CA%2BKVXVN9O0xTTbPJqOisgGs3g6KWnYPkyi5%3D91_YBr5sHTtCPQ%40mail.gmail.com.