diff --git a/Tools/ardupilotwaf/mavgen.py b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/mavgen.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..79826f76b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/mavgen.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# encoding: utf-8
+# (c) Siddharth Bharat Purohit, 3DRobotics Inc.
+
+"""
+The **mavgen.py** program is a code generator which creates mavlink header files.
+"""
+
+from waflib import Task, Utils, Node
+from waflib.TaskGen import feature, before_method, extension
+import os
+
+class mavgen(Task.Task):
+	"""generate mavlink header files"""
+	color   = 'GREEN'
+	run_str = '${PYTHON} ${MAVGEN} --lang=C --wire-protocol=1.0 --output ${TGT} ${SRC}'
+
+def options(opt):
+	opt.load('python')
+
+@feature('mavgen')
+@before_method('process_source')
+def process_mavgen(self):
+    inputs = self.to_nodes(self.source)
+    outputs = []
+
+    self.target = Utils.to_list(getattr(self, 'target', []))
+    for t in self.target:
+        if not isinstance(t, Node.Node):
+            t = self.bld.bldnode.find_or_declare(t)
+        outputs.append(t)
+
+    self.source = []
+    self.create_task('mavgen', inputs, outputs)
+
+def configure(cfg):
+	"""
+	setup environment for mavlink header generator
+	"""
+	cfg.load('python')
+	cfg.check_python_version(minver=(2,7,0))
+
+	env = cfg.env
+	cfg.env.env = dict(os.environ)
+
+	cfg.start_msg('Checking for message_definitions')
+	if not cfg.srcnode.find_resource('modules/mavlink/message_definitions/v1.0/ardupilotmega.xml'):
+		cfg.fatal(env.MAV_MSG_DEFS + ' not found, please run: git submodule init && git submodule update', color='RED')
+		return
+	cfg.end_msg('success')
+
+	env.MAVLINK_DIR = cfg.srcnode.find_dir('modules/mavlink/').abspath()
+
+	env.MAVLINK_HEADERS = cfg.bldnode.make_node('/libraries/GCS_MAVLink/include/mavlink/v1.0/').abspath()
+
+	env.MAVGEN = env.MAVLINK_DIR  + '/pymavlink/tools/mavgen.py'
+	cfg.env.env['PYTHONPATH'] = env.MAVLINK_DIR
+
+	env.MAV_MSG_DEFS = cfg.srcnode.find_resource('modules/mavlink/message_definitions/v1.0/ardupilotmega.xml').abspath()
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index e41885943b..f7391c18e6 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ def init(ctx):
 def options(opt):
     boards_names = boards.get_boards_names()
 
-    opt.load('compiler_cxx compiler_c waf_unit_test')
+    opt.load('compiler_cxx compiler_c waf_unit_test python')
     opt.add_option('--board',
                    action='store',
                    choices=boards_names,
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ def configure(cfg):
     cfg.load('compiler_cxx compiler_c')
     cfg.load('clang_compilation_database')
     cfg.load('waf_unit_test')
+    cfg.load('mavgen')
     cfg.load('gbenchmark')
     cfg.load('static_linking')
 
@@ -95,8 +96,9 @@ def configure(cfg):
     )
 
     cfg.env.prepend_value('INCLUDES', [
-        cfg.srcnode.abspath() + '/libraries/'
-    ])
+        cfg.srcnode.abspath() + '/libraries/',
+        cfg.bldnode.abspath() +'/' + cfg.env.BOARD + '/libraries/',
+        cfg.bldnode.abspath() +'/' + cfg.env.BOARD + '/libraries/GCS_MAVLink'])
 
     # TODO: Investigate if code could be changed to not depend on the
     # source absolute path.
@@ -116,6 +118,13 @@ def list_boards(ctx):
     print(*boards.get_boards_names())
 
 def build(bld):
+
+    #generate mavlink headers
+    bld(features=['mavgen'],
+        source=['modules/mavlink/message_definitions/v1.0/ardupilotmega.xml'],
+        target=['libraries/GCS_MAVLink/include/mavlink/v1.0/'])
+
+    bld.add_group()
     # NOTE: Static library with vehicle set to UNKNOWN, shared by all
     # the tools and examples. This is the first step until the
     # dependency on the vehicles is reduced. Later we may consider
@@ -126,7 +135,6 @@ def build(bld):
         vehicle='UNKNOWN',
         libraries=ardupilotwaf.get_all_libraries(bld),
     )
-
     # TODO: Currently each vehicle also generate its own copy of the
     # libraries. Fix this, or at least reduce the amount of
     # vehicle-dependent libraries.