YOUR OPINION AND SUGGESTIONS WANTED!
I'm seeking ingenuity here, so no ideas are "bad" ideas. Let's hear it.
My current crazy idea includes a launcher, mission planner software, and a parachute system. But I'll get to that in a second.
My concerns are:
Weight (cameras can be heavy - looking at 5-10 lbs payload)
Flight time (would like to be 1hour+ which I'm guessing rules out electric but not necessarily)
Money (anything's possible, it just costs more - but lets not get carried away)
Lets face it, this stuff wouldn't be interesting if money wasn't a limiting factor. I'd just go to fathead solutions and buy a $75k setup that's already built. Where's the fun and ingenuity in that? Anyone can say: go buy an over the top expensive drone. Just like anyone else who spends their time doing this stuff, I want to build my own.
My question is largely an opinion based one - but I look forward to what you guys/gals suggest. What, in your view, is the best way to go completely (or almost completely) autonomous?
What I mean is: in a perfect world, I'd like to sit at my laptop in my truck with my camera controls, and have my UAV launch, navigate waypoints, return, and land nearby. All with limited manual (human) control. In theory, I can then focus on the camera controls and, more importantly, not stress out over eventually landing my expensive camera on an asphalt runway. Not to mention, a suitable runway isn't always nearby.
The purpose of my future UAV will be aerial photography and video. I'd like to have a system that can fly for me while I remotely operate my cameras (ArduPilot can do that much for me). That being said, I need something to GENTLY land without risking expensive camera equipment. Although quite impressive, the ArduPlane software will not safely land a plane for me. But sonar and a copter can solve that. However, a plane may afford me more time in the sky to repeatedly orbit my photo subject. When it comes to flight time and range, I suppose that all boils down to electric, gas or glow - And copter vs. plane.
So here come's my spitball idea. Go with a Projet fiberglass "predator" drone (its wingspan is quite large and I should be able to load my camera equipment onboard - approx. 5lbs) or is that too heavy?
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1197203
My idea gets crazier with "the automatic launch" portion of the project. I can use my engineering shop to weld up a launcher. If I'm not mistaken, it should be possible to have the plane on rails and project it out and up to speed. As long as I have a short distance and proper air speed, the prop should be able to take over (anyone ever seen this done?).
I can then use mission planner to automatically navigate my pre-set waypoints (that part is easy).
And following a hopefully successful flight, I can pilot up wind of my location on the ground, kill the prop, and deploy a parachute system to GENTLY land (hopefully somewhere near me) without risking expensive camera equipment (anyone ever seen that done?).
It's like I always say - anything is possible, it just costs more. So I know it CAN be done. But I don't exactly have a military budget. I'd like to keep it as fiscally responsible as possible. Despite popular belief, ingenuity will always win over credit cards!
Sorry this got so long, but I'd really like to hear from the folks who actually build and fly these things to gain some perspective on how I can get as close to fully autonomous as possible. I have a feeling that my answer is probably a copter but it seems the planes have better range and flight time capabilities - and I'd like to stay up as long as I can. But of course, they get pricey http://www.robotshop.com/micropilot-mp-vision-uav-glider.html
Let me know your thoughts.
Replies
Have you seen Flying Giants?
I am a newbie to this hobby, but I think you can put the Arduplane APM into any R/C aircraft, so your first challenge is finding a plane that meets your performance specs.
Side note, I've seen a few of these flying giants at various air shows or airport open-houses, and the thing most amazing is that whenever they fly, all they want to do is hang on the prop - just like a poorly controlled helicopter.