Dynamic Altitude Calculation based on Real Takeoff Location instead of the Plan One
Today my drone unfortunately crashed in Little Finland. I made a flight plan in which my orbit route carefully avoided all tall rocks. However, the altitude is based on the takeoff location. My real take off location was60ft shorter compared to the planned one due to the road status. It crashed near the tip of the rock, exactly where the route and rock would collide if the altitude was 60ft lower. I knew there was a feature to set the reference to the ground level. But for terrains like Little Finland it would be quite inconvenient to constantly change the altitude while flying.
The suggested change is to automatically detect the difference of the actual takeoff altitude and the planned altitude, and apply the difference to all altitudes set in the plan when ATL is used.
I'd feel worse if the feature is already and only available in higher level of the plan. :')
Comments
6 comments
You may have been able to use AGL but that is only available with a Professional plan. Even if using the AGL feature it uses world ERSI data which is only accurate every 30m, not at every point. So it still may have crashed. Also you can pause any mission quickly when it looks too close to the rocks.
https://app.dronelink.com/pricing/professional/compare
Even if you use AGL or terrain follow, the mission plan will suggest that you put a takeoff restriction because all the altitudes will be adjusted relative to the takeoff location still, so not really what he wants.
Yes. I set each waypoint for the AGL and many makers along the path which works for me. It just takes a bit of more time. I think it may work but hard to say depending on what the terrain is actually like. In my situation on the ones I’ve flown it worked great.
Right. It is a new feature, not exactly what AGL offers. Remote areas could be unpredictable and the road conditions might not be what was expected. If internet is available, an altitude check and refresh is doable; if no signal, then a reminder/alert for distance being off the plan or a manual offset provided by the user could be the last hope. Right now no edit is allowed when no network.
I was using Orbit so I should have checked out the surrounding before executing the full plan. I had about 5~10 seconds before I could take actions. Guess I was feeling too comfortable and confident after a few successful runs.
Thanks for yours replies!
I’d guess this is not a priority feature so in the meantime I’m sure if you shared your mission plan I could easily set it using ATL reference and get it to run without crashing. I could send the altered plan back and at least you could look at it and get ideas of how to utilize ATL reference in the future on any terrain with noticeable elevation changes or obstacles like tress, rocks, boulders etc…. I live in an area with a lot of rolling hills and elevation changes and majority of the time I only use ATL, not AGL even though I have that feature. I’ve been using DL for almost 5 years and I have a ton of missions and a lot of flight time. It’s your choice. Let me know by sharing the plan. Good luck, enjoy.
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