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Greetings, 
Some interesting news from UgCS Team.

We have modified the firmware based on ArduCopter v3.2 firmware for it to allow us to control the speed of the vehicle in an automated mission in real time through the throttle channel on the RC remote.

How it happens:

1. Install the new firmware through Mission Planner. After installing, make sure you recalibrate the compass.

2. Create a mission in UgCS, upload it to the vehicle and start flying.

3. As soon as the vehicle is in “Auto” flight mode you will be able to control the speed of the vehicle with the throttle stick of your RC remote.

The speed can be changed between 0 m/s (when throttle is set to zero) and 10 m/s (when throttle is set to maximum) and anything in-between. For instance, when the throttle on the RC remote is set to 70% the vehicle will fly at approximately 7 m/s.

The behavior of the vehicle in other flight modes is not altered in any way and they work as normal

A few notes:

• This has been tested to work on a Pixhawk flight controller on the Iris+ platform.
• The change in speed is not instantaneous. By default the acceleration of the vehicle is limited to 100 cm/s². It can be changed via Mission Planner by increasing the parameter “WPNAV_ACCEL” to a higher value, e.g. 500, which corresponds to 5m/s².
• The vehicle will still automatically slow down before sharp turns.

This feature of variable speed control can be used in fields such as aerial photography, sports videos, monitoring industrial and agricultural objects and other. If you are interested in this, feel free to contact us!

Safe flights,
UgCS Team