Discussions

I'm new to this forum but not new to this world: I started many years ago with fuel planes, then moved to electric sailplanes, then sold everything because I didn't have time, and now I'm having again some fun with aerial photography using a DJI Phantom 3 drone.

I'm thinking to build a sailplane UAV in the next future, and I'm wondering if there's an autopilot optimized for endurance/long range on the market.

Basically I would like to plan my missions using following parameters:

• Min altitude / Max altitude
• Min airspeed / Min groundspeed
• Waypoints
• "Channel" width (around waypoints)

The autopilot should follow this logic:

1. If airspeed and groundspeed > minimum, climb until airspeed or groundspeed = minimum or altitude = maximum.
2. If airspeed or groundspeed = minimum or altitude >= maximum, keep current altitude.
3. If airspeed or groundspeed < minimum, descend until airspeed and groundspeed = minimum or altitude = minimum.
4. If altitude <= minimum and still airspeed or groundspeed < minimum, turn motor on and climb to a medium altitude between min and max, then turn motor off.
5. Heading is controlled in order to keep the plane inside the "channel" defined by waypoints and channel width.

Do you think it's possible to implement the autopilot above with the hardware currently on the market and maybe with some modifications of ArduPlane or other software?

Any suggestion or critic is welcome!