Dynamic RTL? Can APM or Pixhawk do it? Can Tower do it?? DJI Inspire has it!

Posted by Robert Giordano on September 9, 2015 at 12:10pm

"Dynamic RTL" would be automatically returning to my current gps location instead of the original launch point.

I have clients that want me to shoot stills and video of yachts, out in the ocean. I'm doing one tomorrow. I'll be on the yacht and we'll be moving. If I get into trouble (like losing my video feed, or some other issue), I'd like to be able to use RTL on my Nexus tablet running Tower. I figure it would have to be Tower because my radio doesn't have gps.

Can this be done? I can't find any documentation for this feature. I've already used Tower in follow mode so it doesn't seem like a stretch to just have my quad return to my current location.

I haven't seen it (I don't own any DJI products) but apparently, the DJI Inspire has this feature.

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Replies

  • Pedals2Paddles September 22, 2015 at 4:48am

    The only way to presently launch off a moving vehicle/vessel is to disable the pre-arm checks.  If you're going to do this, you should do a full test flight on solid ground to make sure everything is working and calibrated properly.

  • Developer
    Randy September 21, 2015 at 11:21pm

    I hear the latest beta of Tower has the return-to-me feature which should work with Copter-3.3 although I haven't tested it personally.

  • Hans H. September 18, 2015 at 7:08am

    A moving "RTL" after dataloss?

  • Robert Giordano September 11, 2015 at 10:14pm

    Well, my mission failed and my client was disappointed. The weather was perfect, there was no wind, and the ocean was beautifully calm. Even so, the gentle rocking of the boat was enough to prevent my quad from arming. I tried several times. No go. 

    So, it looks like I'm not the only one who wants "boat mode" or some other solution that will let me launch and fly multiple battery packs from a boat. 

    I just started a new thread with all of the information I could find, plus a few of my own ideas here:
    http://diydrones.com/group/arducopterusergroup/forum/topics/how-to-...

    • ian Molesworth September 18, 2015 at 5:13am

      A valid point but one that needs solving. Launching from a moving platform is very much a requirement these days.

    • Artem > Robert Giordano September 14, 2015 at 11:00am

      yea, I usually do brand new accel calibration while still on the ground and than disable pre-arm checks. over the summer I did it on 4 shoot on Tahoe. A bit risky, yes, but that's how it works anyways with DJI controllers. 

  • Bernardo September 10, 2015 at 1:38am

    My first thought was ................ ok, when I'm done with the shots of the boats (or moving POI) and I'm on a moving *tower*, why not switch to the *follow me mode* to keep the copter near to my position (boat) and then land on deck?

    Perhaps the new command will be a *RTT* :)  (return to tower)

  • Developer
    Randy September 9, 2015 at 5:56pm

    Copter-3.3 allows the ground station to set the home position.  So if the GCS (like Tower or whatever) keeps resetting it say every 5 seconds then it would RTL very close to the boat.  I've raised an issue for the Tower guys here.

    implement return to me · Issue #1397 · DroidPlanner/Tower
    AC 3.3 will accept do-set-home commands which should allow return-to-me to work if the GCS sends updated home positions at regular intervals. It shou…
    • Robert Giordano > Randy September 10, 2015 at 3:44pm

      Looks like I'll be upgrading from APM to Pixhawk soon! =)

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