Initial Connect: Add unit tests to validate the initial connect state machine with respect to skipping various parts

[DonLakeFlyer]

Summary

Add a data-driven unit test that validates InitialConnectStateMachine skip behavior across all combinations of HighLatency, LogReplay, and Flying link flags. The test generates an 8-row matrix (3 boolean dimensions) and asserts which MAVLink request traffic occurs for each combination:

• AUTOPILOT_VERSION: skipped when highLatency || logReplay
• AVAILABLE_MODES: always requested
• PARAM_REQUEST_LIST: always runs, but short-circuited internally for HL/LR links
• MISSION_REQUEST_LIST (mission/geofence/rally): skipped when highLatency || logReplay

Note that 'flying' is not yet used. Working on that...

Also adds an analysis document covering the full initial connect pipeline: state ordering, retry/timeout behavior, skip predicates, progress weighting, and data captured at each stage.

Related to #13861

Test plan

• InitialConnectTest::_stateRunMatrix passes locally across all 8 matrix rows
• Existing InitialConnectTest cases continue to pass

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds explicit matrix expectations and comprehensive documentation for the InitialConnectStateMachine behavior across different link types (high-latency, log-replay) and flight states.

Changes:

• Added data-driven test _stateRunMatrix that validates all 8 combinations of (HighLatency, LogReplay, Flying) states
• Added readable matrix tables showing expected request behavior in test comments
• Added comprehensive 374-line analysis document covering InitialConnectStateMachine behavior, skip predicates, and state transitions

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
test/Vehicle/InitialConnectTest.h	Added test method declarations for new matrix test
test/Vehicle/InitialConnectTest.cc	Implemented comprehensive matrix test with 8 data-driven test cases validating AUTOPILOT_VERSION, AVAILABLE_MODES, and plan request behavior across different link configurations
docs/en/initial-connect-state-machine-analysis.md	New comprehensive documentation covering state machine behavior, skip predicates, timeouts, progress tracking, and includes matching matrix tables

[github-actions]

Build Results

Platform Status

Platform	Status	Details
Linux	Passed	View
Windows	Failed	View
MacOS	Passed	View
Android	Failed	View

Some builds failed.

Pre-commit

Check	Status	Details
pre-commit	Failed (non-blocking)	View

Pre-commit hooks: 32 passed, 78 failed, 10 skipped.

Test Results

linux-sanitizers: 51 passed, 0 skipped

linux_gcc_64: 51 passed, 0 skipped

Total: 102 passed, 0 skipped

Code Coverage

Coverage: N/A

No baseline available for comparison

Artifact Sizes

Artifact	Size
QGroundControl	318.76 MB
QGroundControl-aarch64	195.76 MB
QGroundControl-x86_64	178.55 MB

No baseline available for comparison

---

_{Updated: 2026-02-26 20:34:24 UTC • Triggered by: MacOS}