Mission planning and determining height

Posted by Matt Alter on March 31, 2015 at 2:08pm

I did my first flight with Tower last night and it went great.  How are you planning for missions and accounting for heights of objects.  

I was thinking, fly once on manual with Tower reading off telemetry and fly around the objects I want to avoid.  

Then using that to plan the mission.  I mean, over trees, 100 FT should be ok, but would like to be more precise.  

Are there any tools such as laser measurements to calculate heights of objects?

txs

M

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Erik Graham March 31, 2015 at 2:27pm

    I do what you do.

    I scout out the location by flying around in loiter and noting down some tree heights relative to launch point.  Same for other features (rock outcroppings, buildings, etc).  I always make sure to figure out the minimum "safe altitude" that will clear all features in the entire area.  Sometimes, I just use the safe altitude for the whole mission. Its easier and faster.  When I want to do something more complex, I start by using the safe altitude for all waypoints.  Then I go back in and adjust individual way points to different altitudes.

    I don't do this every time, but the best set up is when I go out with a tablet.  I use it to plan the mission on site.  Meantime the Iris+ is in loiter connected to my smart phone.  That way I can fly the Iris out to check some altitudes or other things while I am planning on the tablet.  When I'm done with planning the mission on the tablet, I save it (Export to file), and then disconnect my smartphone from the Iris and connect my tablet.  I upload the plan to the Iris from the tablet.  Then immediately disconnect the tablet and reconnect the phone.  At that point I download the plan onto the phone.  So now tablet, Iris and smart phone all have the same plan.  Then you do a test run.  If you like it, you just come back when the light is good and shoot your final version.  All my "master" plans are saved on my tablet.  I suppose I could save them on my phone as well, but for some reason I like to keep them on the tablet.

    • Matt Alter > Erik Graham March 31, 2015 at 6:25pm

      Did that exactly.  Flew one battery to the high points.  Then adjusted my mission that I planned early that day with the new heights and moved a few points around.  Worked like a charm.

      btw, flying autonomous is crazy cool!!.  I'll post the video later tonight.

      txs

      M.

    • Matt Alter > Matt Alter March 31, 2015 at 6:51pm

      My Youtube channel  Videos from all my flights, including tonights.

      https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAMTHCWh6CQMiA0erHk1VFZ0XfkH...

    • Erik Graham > Matt Alter March 31, 2015 at 7:45pm

      nice.  have fun!

This reply was deleted.