Simon Wilks
Director at Navronics
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Summary
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RockstarSimon Wilks is a director and hands-on embedded systems engineer with 14 years in drone automation and a two-decade tech background spanning startups and large tech firms. He founded and led UAVenture for nearly a decade and now directs Navronics from Townsville, applying practical IoT and avionics expertise to commercial drone systems. His open-source contributions to high-profile projects like MAVLink and PX4 show deep familiarity with flight-stack tooling, build reliability, and data visualization (notably improving pymavlink KML exports and PX4 build scripts). Previously managing engineering teams at Google, he combines leadership experience with low-level firmware and toolchain problem solving. Colleagues rely on him to bridge product needs and embedded realities, delivering robust mission-critical behaviors such as servo control and pre-flight checks. He’s equally at home iterating on a PX4 mixer or shaping company strategy, bringing both technical breadth and operational grit.
14 years of coding experience
21 years of employment as a software developer
Github Skills (12)
embedded10
px410
autopilot10
sys10
python10
mavlink10
cprogramming-language9
bash9
c-language9
iot9
drones8
kml8
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
PX4/PX4-Autopilot
Sep 2012 - Jul 2015
PX4 Autopilot Software
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:190 commits, 13 PRs, 1 branch in 2 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Simon primarily contributed to the PX4 Autopilot software by addressing issues related to submodules and making improvements to the build process. They fixed issues in the submodule update scripts, adding quotes to variables for safety and enhancing compatibility checks. Further work included integrating a Phantom FX-61 mixer, as well as refining the bottle drop feature with adjustments to the code for servo commands and addressing pre-flight checks.
multicopteravoidancedroneuasraspberry-pi
mavlink/mavlink
Aug 2014 - Jun 2015
Marshalling / communication library for drones.
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:5 commits, 2 PRs in 10 months
Contributions summary:Simon primarily contributed to the `pymavlink` tool, focusing on enhancements and adapting the tool to support new features and extensions for the MAVLink protocol. This included fixing a KML export call, merging updates, adding support for a new PX4 log file extension, and improving the visualization of data within the KML files. They also adjusted the `mavkml.py` file, likely to accommodate the new PX4 modes and improve visual data presentation.
communication-librarydronescommunicationmarshalling
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