Crashing because of terrain?

I'm not sure if this is a dumb question, but I have no clue as to the answer, and I've been thinking about it for a while. I live in a very hilly area with plenty of cliffs, and could an ardupilot controlled uav possibly crash by flying into a hillside or cliff?

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Permalink Reply by Chris Anderson on January 16, 2010 at 11:11pm: Uh, yes. They don't have radar. If you don't tell them to rise above obstacles, they'll hit them. That said, the configuration utility does have terrain data and you can tell it to automatically program a mission that won't hit hills.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Krzysztof Bosak on January 17, 2010 at 3:42am: What worse there are no affordable solutions to this problem (under several KUSD lasers, specialized autopilots with FPGA and image processing, all experimental stuff very close to mil apps).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gregg "Cabe" Bond on January 17, 2010 at 5:54am: What about simple near field ultrasonic rangefinders like the ones on the Blimpduino? Use them as virtual "bumpers" out to say a meter from the craft.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Krzysztof Bosak on January 17, 2010 at 6:11am: have fun calculating their range and time to impact.
the subject has been analyzed many times.
they cannot even detect some trees nor high grass.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken on January 17, 2010 at 6:13am: A flying airplane doesn't take long to move a meter. If I knew I was a meter away from a cliff, it would do me no good.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Krzysztof Bosak on January 17, 2010 at 6:25am: Exactly, max IR sensor ranges are 6m, same for best ultrasound sensors.
They are useful for smooth touchdown on paved runway for larger (several kg TOW) airplanes.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joel Ryan on February 23, 2010 at 5:43pm: thermopiles wouldn't really help preventing collisions into trees or power lines, but couldn't they prevent collisions into hillsides? We already use thermopiles to stabilize the plane by detecting temperature differences in the ground and air. So can't we point one forward, and see if the plane is pointed towards a cliff, hillside, etc?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary Mortimer on February 23, 2010 at 9:22pm: Its all in the planning, if you ever fly for me and I write 7P in your logbook its because....

Planning and Prior Preparation Prevent P*ss Poor Performance.

Another one

If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

Oh and another

All aircraft break fools.

The airframe won't fly into a hill, you will, the airplane knows no different and is at your beck and call.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joel Ryan on February 23, 2010 at 9:48pm: I was wondering because I am looking into a uav that tracks a gps unit rigged to an xbee by flying circles around it... I figured I should plan and find a way to avoid the hills rather than hoping the plane wouldn't track the gps into a hill; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary Mortimer on February 23, 2010 at 10:17pm: What happens when the vehicle goes through a tunnel or into lots of buildings and is GPS denied??; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joel Ryan on February 23, 2010 at 10:35pm: Well the GPS doesn't send coordinates in real-time but with split second delays, so the drone would fly around the most recent set of coordinates until new ones came through, and I wouldn't plan on flying near lots of buildings(to do this, I could upload operational parameters, limiting the drone to tracking within a certain area of lat and lon values), but it is much more difficult to plan not to fly near hills, especially where i live.

Permalink Reply by Rory Paul (Condor) on February 23, 2010 at 10:35pm: I have the same issue. The simplest solution is to get a topographic map (google maps, terrain option) of the area plan your route and give yourself plenty of wiggle room.; ▶ Reply to This