RFC 0018 - Improved Battery Status Reporting

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+  * Start date: 2022-03-26
+  * Contributors: Hamish Willee <[email protected]>, ...
+  * Related issues: 
+    - [16-cell support #1747](https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink/pull/1747)
+	- [common: added voltage and current multipliers to BATTERY_STATUS #233](https://github.com/ArduPilot/mavlink/pull/233)
+    - [Add MAV_BATTERY_CHARGE_STATE_CHARGING #1068](https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink/pull/1068)
+
+
+# Summary
+
+This RFC proposes:
+- a new `BATTERY_STATUS_V2` message that has a single cumulative voltage value rather than individual cell voltage arrays.
+- a new (optional) `BATTERY_VOLTAGES` message that can be scaled to as many cells as needed, and which reports them as faults.
+
+
+# Motivation
+
+The motivation is to:
+- reduce the memory required for battery reporting ([anecdotal evidence](https://github.com/ArduPilot/mavlink/pull/233#issuecomment-976197179) indicates cases with 15% of bandwidth on a default RF channel).
+- Provide a cleaner message and design for both implementers and consumers.
+
+The [BATTERY_STATUS](https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#BATTERY_STATUS) has two arrays that can be used to report individual cell voltages (up to 14), or a single cumulative voltage, and which cannot be truncated.
+The vast majority of consumers are only interested in the total battery voltage, and either sum the battery cells or get the cumulative voltage.
+By separating the cell voltage reporting into a separate message the new battery status can be much smaller, and the cell voltages need only be sent if the consumer is actually interested.
+
+# Detailed Design
+
+There are three parts to the design:
+1. A more efficient status message
+2. A scalable battery voltage message.
+3. Mechanisms that allow the new messages to seamlessly coexist with the old one along with eventual deprecation of the older message.
+
+## BATTERY_STATUS_V2
+
+The proposed message is:
+
+```xml
+    <message id="???" name="BATTERY_STATUS_V2">
+      <description>Battery dynamic information. This should be streamed (nominally at 1Hz). Static battery information is sent in SMART_BATTERY_INFO.</description>
+      <field type="uint8_t" name="id" instance="true">Battery ID</field>
+      <field type="int16_t" name="temperature" units="cdegC" invalid="INT16_MAX">Temperature of the battery. INT16_MAX for unknown temperature.</field>
+      <field type="uint32_t" name="voltage" units="mV" invalid="[UINT32_MAX]">Battery voltage (total).</field>
+      <field type="int16_t" name="current" units="cA" invalid="UINT16_MAX">Battery current (through all cells/loads). Positive if discharging, negative if charging. UINT16_MAX: field not provided.</field>
+      <field type="int32_t" name="current_consumed" units="mAh" invalid="-1">Consumed charge, -1: Current consumption estimate not provided.</field>
+      <field type="int8_t" name="percent_remaining" units="%" invalid="-1">Remaining battery energy. Values: [0-100], -1: Remaining battery energy is not provided.</field>
+      <field type="uint32_t" name="time_remaining" units="s" invalid="UINT32_MAX">Remaining battery time (estimated), UINT32_MAX: Remaining battery time estimate not provided.</field>
+      <field type="uint32_t" name="fault_bitmask" display="bitmask" enum="MAV_BATTERY_FAULT">Fault/health/ready-to-use indications.</field>
+    </message>
+```
+
+With `MAV_BATTERY_FAULT` having the following **additions** (from `MAV_BATTERY_CHARGE_STATE` and `MAV_BATTERY_MODE`):
+```xml
+    <enum name="MAV_BATTERY_FAULT" bitmask="true">
+      <description>Battery supply status flags (bitmask) indicating battery health and readiness for flight.</description>
+      ...
+      <entry value="512" name="BATTERY_FAULT_CHARGING">
+        <description>Battery is charging. Not ready to use.</description>
+      </entry>
+      <entry value="1024" name="BATTERY_FAULT_AUTO_DISCHARGING">
+        <description>Battery is auto discharging (towards storage level). Not ready to use.</description>
+      </entry>
+      <entry value="1024" name="BATTERY_FAULT_HOT_SWAP">
+        <description>Battery in hot-swap mode (current limited to prevent spikes that might damage sensitive electrical circuits). Not ready to use.</description>
+      </entry>
+```
+
+The message is heavily based on [BATTERY_STATUS](https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#BATTERY_STATUS) but:
+- removes the cell voltage arrays: `voltages` and `voltages_ext`
+- adds `voltage`, the total cell voltage. This is a uint32_t to allow batteries with more than 65V.
+- removes `energy_consumed`. This essentially duplicates `current_consumed` for most purposes, and `current_consumed`/mAh is nearly ubiquitous.
+- removes `battery_function` and `type` (chemistry) as these are present in `SMART_BATTERY_INFO` and invariant.
+  ```xml
+     <field type="uint8_t" name="battery_function" enum="MAV_BATTERY_FUNCTION">Function of the battery</field>
+     <field type="uint8_t" name="type" enum="MAV_BATTERY_TYPE">Type (chemistry) of the battery</field>
+  ```
+  - A GCS that needs invariant information should read `SMART_BATTERY_INFO` on startup
+  - A vehicle that allows battery swapping must stream `SMART_BATTERY_INFO` (at low rate) to ensure that battery changes are notifie (and ideally also emit it on battery change).
+- Removes [`charge_state`](https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#MAV_BATTERY_CHARGE_STATE) [`mode`](https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#MAV_BATTERY_MODE)
+  ```xml
+  <field type="uint8_t" name="charge_state" enum="MAV_BATTERY_CHARGE_STATE">State for extent of discharge, provided by autopilot for warning or external reactions</field>
+  <field type="uint8_t" name="mode" enum="MAV_BATTERY_MODE">Battery mode. Default (0) is that battery mode reporting is not supported or battery is in normal-use mode.</field>
+  ```
+  - The state is almost all inferred from the battery remaining. Traditionally the GCS sets appropriate levels for warning - the battery has a less accurate view on appropriate warning levels for a particular system, making this redundant. The exception is charging status.
+  - The mode is reasonable enough, but can be expressed as a fault "there is a concern with using this battery".
+
+
+
+#### Questions
+
+- Do we need all the other fields?
+- Are there any other fields missing?
+- `current_consumed`, `percent_remaining`, `time_remaining` all tell much the same story, and can be estimated from each other. Do we need all of these, and if so which ones?
+- Should we have `MAV_BATTERY_FAULT` for critical level "just before deep discharge"? The battery can know this, and it might prevent over discharge.
+  ```xml
+      <entry value="1024" name="BATTERY_FAULT_CRITICAL_LEVEL">
+        <description>Battery is at critically low level. Undamaged, but not ready to use.</description>
+      </entry>
+  ```
+ - Should we have `MAV_BATTERY_FAULT` summarising "not ready to use"? Simplifies things for GCS/user as unhealthy vs you can't use this at all.
+  ```xml
+      <entry value="1024" name="BATTERY_FAULT_NOT_READY">
+        <description>Battery is not ready/safe to use. Check other bitmasks for reasons.</description>
+      </entry>
+  ``` 
+
+-
+
+## Battery Cell Voltages
+
+The proposed battery message is:
+
+```xml
+    <message id="???" name="BATTERY_CELL_VOLTAGES">
+      <description>Battery cell voltages.
+        This message is provided primarily for cell fault debugging.
+	For batteries with more than 10 cells the message should be sent multiple times, iterating the index value.
+	It should not be streamed at very low rate (less than once a minute) or streamed only on request.</description>
+      <field type="uint8_t" name="id" instance="true">Battery ID</field>
+      <field type="uint8_t" name="index">Cell index (0 by default). This can be iterated for batteries with more than 12 cells.</field>
+      <field type="uint16_t[12]" name="voltages" units="mV" invalid="[0]">Battery voltage of 12 cells at current index. Cells above the valid cell count for this battery should be set to 0.</field>
+    </message>
+```
+
+Cell voltages can be used to verify that poorly performing batteries have failing cells, and to providing early warning of longer term battery degradation.
+It is useful to have long term trace information in logs, but not necessary for this to be at particularly high rate.
+Therefore the message provides all information about the battery voltages, but is expected to be sent at low rate, or on request.
+
+As designed, the message will not be zero-byte truncated (field re-ordering means that the array is last).
+The message might be modified to make:
+- `voltages` an extension field. For a 4S battery this would save 12 bytes per message but lose checking. If we do this we might as well mandate "no extension".
+- `id` and `index` into `uint16_t`. For a 4S battery this would save 10 bytes per message,and retain mavlink checking on field. It would cost 2 additional bytes on every new message.
+
+
+#### Alternatives
+
+An alternative is just to send fault information.
+This assumes that the smart battery is capable of providing the long term trend analysis that can be obtained from logs using the above message.
+
+```xml
+    <message id="???" name="BATTERY_CELL_VOLTAGES">
+      <description>Battery cell fault information.</description>
+      <field type="uint8_t" name="id" instance="true">Battery ID</field>
+      <field type="uint8_t" name="index">Cell index (0 by default). This is iterated for every 64 cells, allowing very large cell fault information. </field>
+      <field type="uint64_t" name="fault_mask">Fault/health indications.</field>
+    </message>
+```
+
+## SMART_BATTERY_INFO
+
+[SMART_BATTERY_INFO](https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#SMART_BATTERY_INFO) is already deployed and it is not clear if it can be modified. It may be possible to extend.
+
+Add note that it must be streamed at a low rate in order to allow detection of battery change, and should also be sent when the battery changes. 
+
+Questions:
+- What low rate is OK for streaming? is there another alternative for tracking battery change
+
+
+
+## Migration/Discovery
+
+`BATTERY_STATUS` consumes significant bandwidth: sending `BATTERY_STATUS_V2` at the same time would just increase the problem.
+
+The proposal here is that GCS should support both messages for the forseeable future.
+Flight stacks should manage their own migration after relevant ground stations have been updated.
+
+
+# Alternatives
+
+TBD
+
+# Unresolved Questions
+
+TBD
+
+# References
+
+* ?
+