ORBITPILOT

Onboard firmware for ORBIT — Open Remote Bidirectional IoV Telemetry

A fork of sunnypilot / openpilot that turns a comma 3X into a connected node of the ORBIT platform: live telemetry out, remote commands in, QR pairing to your account — with driving always behind openpilot's own safety gates.

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Researcher profile · Research group — SICUEM · Backend + app (ORBIT-IoV) ↗

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🛰️ The in-car UI

A full dark "ground-station" redesign of the driver UI — same sunnypilot functionality, ORBIT identity.

Boot splash	Home — live broker/API status, telemetry pulse, account pill	QR pairing — countdown, regenerate, manual code
ORBIT panel — live status hero, connection, telemetry, Jetson	Device — account, unlink, calibration	Home — unlinked state

✨ What ORBIT adds

📡 Telemetry publisher	car state, GPS, radar, model, alerts, camera frames → MQTT, with a 3 s heartbeat
🎮 Remote commands	lane change, speed nudges, steering pulses, emergency brake — bridged via openpilot Params
🔔 On-road command overlay	the driver always sees when the app sends a command; remote braking gets a full red banner
🔗 QR enrollment	scan from the app to claim the device; owner shown in-UI; unlink from app or device
🧠 Jetson edge link	ZeroMQ frames + AI steer-torque, live status panel, selectable torque modes
🚗 Sim + mod menu	MetaDrive bridge with hotkey mod-menu: swap maps, spawn traffic/obstacles — test before the real car

🏗️ Architecture

flowchart LR
    subgraph CAR["🚗 comma 3X · this firmware"]
        CAN["CAN bus"] --> OP["openpilot / sunnypilot<br/>safety-critical control loop"]
        OP --> ORB["orbit/<br/>MQTT telemetry + commands"]
    end
    subgraph EDGE["🧠 Edge · optional"]
        J["NVIDIA Jetson"]
    end
    subgraph CLOUD["☁️ ORBIT infra · repo ORBIT-IoV"]
        BR["Mosquitto<br/>MQTT broker"]
        BE["Flask backend<br/>REST + SQLite"]
    end
    APP["📱 Flutter app"]

    ORB -- "telemetry_mqtt/&lt;dongle&gt;/*" --> BR
    BR -- "telemetry_config/&lt;dongle&gt;/*  (commands)" --> ORB
    ORB -- "ZeroMQ (frames / torque)" --> J
    BR <--> BE
    BR <--> APP
    APP -- "REST" --> BE

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Backend, app, database and broker live in ORBIT-IoV. The safety-critical loop never leaves the car: remote commands only act through openpilot's actuation and safety gates.

🔗 QR pairing in 10 seconds

sequenceDiagram
    participant D as 🚗 Device
    participant BE as ☁️ Backend
    participant U as 📱 App
    D->>BE: enroll { pairing_code, ttl 600 s }  +  QR on screen
    U->>BE: scan QR → POST /api/devices/claim
    BE->>D: enroll_ack { claimed, user_name }
    D->>D: ✓ "Vinculado" — owner shown on Home
    U-->>BE: unlink (app)  →  enroll_ack { claimed: false }  →  QR is back

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Lost acks self-heal, codes can be regenerated from the dialog, and unlinking from the app re-opens enrollment on the device automatically.

🚀 Run it

1. Install like any sunnypilot build (getting started).
2. Point the device at your ORBIT broker: Settings → ORBIT → Servidor ORBIT → EDITAR. The value is persisted in /data/orbit_config_mqtt.json (outside the git tree, so it survives OTA updates); orbit/config_mqtt.json is only the factory template (broker, broker_port, backend_port).
3. Pair: Settings → Device → Vincular con ORBIT → scan with the app. Done — telemetry and remote control flow once claimed.

🕹️ Simulator

./tools/sim/launch_openpilot.sh          # openpilot side
./tools/sim/run_bridge.py --render       # MetaDrive side, with on-screen HUD

Hotkeys in the bridge terminal: m cycle map (loop / roundabout / intersections / highway / ramps) · t toggle traffic · l/k spawn lead / cut-in car · o/p obstacles · c clear. ./tools/sim/preview_map.py --map roundabout previews geometry without openpilot.

📶 MQTT contract — topics & payloads

Telemetry — device → cloud (telemetry_mqtt/<dongle>/<type>)

Type	Notes
carState	speed, cruise, blinkers, blind-spot; also the 3 s presence heartbeat
carControl · controlsState	actuators / hud, alerts
radarState · drivingModelData	lead(s), lane-line metadata
liveCalibration · gpsLocationExternal · gpsLocation	calibration, position
event · logs · camera/{road,driver,wide}	alerts, device logs, camera frames
enroll	pairing announce while unclaimed
sicuem_torque	Jetson AI steer-torque (when a Jetson mode is active)

Commands — cloud → device (telemetry_config/<dongle>/<cmd>)

Command	Effect (through openpilot gates)
left · right	forced lane change
control	forward / break (speed nudge) · tright / tleft (steering pulse)
speed_up · speed_down · speed_increment	cruise-speed control
overtake	one commanded left lane change (closed-course validation required)
brutebreak	emergency brake (bounded intensity)
intervalos	periodic longitudinal cut demo
camera_config · jetson_config · steer_torque_mode	device configuration
enroll_ack	claim / unclaim confirmation ({claimed, user_name, user_email, ts})

Every remote command is mirrored to the driver by the on-road ORBIT overlay.

📁 Where the ORBIT code lives

ORBITPILOT/
├── orbit/                            # the ORBIT device integration
│   ├── mqtt_envio_general.py         # telemetry publisher + heartbeat + QR enroll + connection state
│   ├── mqtt_comandos.py              # remote-command subscriber/router + enroll_ack (claim/unclaim)
│   ├── camera_sender.py              # camera frame sender (MQTT)
│   ├── zmq_client.py                 # Jetson ZeroMQ link
│   ├── canales.json                  # telemetry channel → topic map
│   ├── config_broker.py              # broker config: template + /data/orbit_config_mqtt.json (survives OTA)
│   └── config_mqtt.json              # factory template: broker host/port + backend port
├── selfdrive/ui/
│   ├── layouts/home.py               # ORBIT home (status cards, telemetry pulse, account pill)
│   ├── widgets/orbit_enroll_dialog.py# QR pairing dialog (countdown, regenerate, success state)
│   ├── widgets/orbit_server.py       # broker + backend health monitor
│   └── sunnypilot/onroad/orbit_command_overlay.py  # on-road remote-command indicator
├── tools/sim/                        # MetaDrive bridge + mod menu (maps, traffic, spawns)
├── common/params_keys.h              # Orbit*/orbit_* param registrations
└── docs/superpowers/specs/           # design docs (enrollment, migration, jetson mode)

Everything else is upstream openpilot / sunnypilot.

🛠️ Development notes (this fork)

• Working branch: orbit-master.
• Pushing: origin is SSH; always push with git push --no-verify. The tracked .lfsconfig points Git LFS at sunnypilot's upstream GitLab (read-only), so the LFS pre-push hook must be skipped. ORBIT images are plain git blobs via .gitattributes.
• Design docs: docs/superpowers/specs/ (QR enrollment, sicuem→orbit migration, comma↔Jetson mode).

📚 Citation

@article{orbit2026,
  title   = {ORBIT: A Scalable IoV Architecture for Remote Telemetry and Control in Open Autonomous Driving Systems},
  author  = {Ca{\~n}adas Gallardo, Adri{\'a}n and Bemposta Rosende, Sergio and Garc{\'i}a-Fern{\'a}ndez, Manuel and Aliane, Nourdine and Fern{\'a}ndez-Andr{\'e}s, Javier},
  journal = {TBD},
  year    = {2026},
  note    = {Universidad Europea de Madrid}
}

⚠️ Safety

Alpha-quality research software — not a product. Remote maneuvers run through openpilot's actuation and safety gates and are always announced to the driver on screen, but this firmware has not passed comma's safety validation. Validate every remote-control feature on a closed course first and comply with local laws.

🙏 Acknowledgements & license

Developed within the SICUEM research group at Universidad Europea de Madrid, on top of openpilot and sunnypilot. Released under the MIT License; the original openpilot notice is reproduced below as required:

openpilot is released under the MIT license. Some parts of the software are released under other licenses as specified.

Any user of this software shall indemnify and hold harmless Comma.ai, Inc. and its directors, officers, employees, agents, stockholders, affiliates, subcontractors and customers from and against all allegations, claims, actions, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, obligations, losses, settlements, judgments, costs and expenses (including without limitation attorneys' fees and costs) which arise out of, relate to or result from any use of this software by user.

THIS IS ALPHA QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A PRODUCT. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLYING WITH LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

For full license terms, see the LICENSE file.