MAVLink is the messaging protocol between unmanned vehicles and ground control stations — a compact binary format with a published message catalog covering telemetry, commands, mission upload and parameter management. It is near-universal in the drone industry, spanning open autopilots and commercial platforms alike.
MAVLink
MAVLink is a header-only binary protocol designed for a radio link with a few hundred kilobits to spare. Every message is defined in XML, code-generated into a dozen languages, and the common message set is stable enough that a ground station from one vendor can fly an aircraft from another.
- A published message catalog - Telemetry, commands, missions and parameters, defined in XML and generated into libraries.
- Designed for constrained links - Compact framing and optional signing, because the transport is radio rather than TCP.
- Dialects - Vendors extend the common set without breaking it, which is how the ecosystem stayed compatible.
- Mission protocol - Waypoint upload and progress as a defined exchange rather than a vendor convention.
MAVLink is the drone industry’s answer to the same question ROS answers for robots, and it is more openly published than most of what this market puts on the web. The State of Robotics & Autonomous Systems APIs scores the drone and airspace segment at 11.9 on public web contracts — while the protocol its aircraft actually speak is fully specified and freely available. The interface is not missing; it is on the radio link, and the operational layer above it is what remains unpublished.
Referenced in API Evangelist papers
This standard shows up in my published research. These reports read the machine-readable evidence provider by provider — and put this standard in the context of a real sector.
The State of Robotics & Autonomous Systems APIs
The drone industry's aircraft-to-ground protocol is fully published — while the segment scores 11.9 on public web contracts. The interface is on the radio link.
