Can tower run mission without connection to controller?

[Pedals2Paddles]

Landing is how it would respond to a loss of control signal when GPS is not available. But this the backwards and fairly unusual scenario... A loss of GPS when control signal is not available. FS_EKF_ACTION would kick in when the GPS is lost. And that action is alt hold.

So, how does AC decide which failsafe to use?

 

[Ivanh]

Hey I just tried Tower today with loss of signal, it did what it was intended to do however you end up programming it, no it didn't keep drifting, no it didn't land on the spot, I programmed it to finish a mission with waypoints the last being RTL and even after a loss of signal it continued doing what I had programmed it to do, it finished the mission and RTL. No issues.

 

[Ivanh]

Landing is how it would respond to a loss of control signal when GPS is not available. But this the backwards and fairly unusual scenario... A loss of GPS when control signal is not available. FS_EKF_ACTION would kick in when the GPS is lost. And that action is alt hold.

So, how does AC decide which failsafe to use?

You program it under the 3 settings it has, land where it last lost signal(3); Continue autonomous flight without signal (2); or RTL (1)

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

You're not paying attention. We all know what it will do when the controller signal is lost, which is what this thread discussed long before you posted in it. You've done just that. Nothing new. What's being discussed now, is how it will respond if it is already out of range of the controller and then GPS is lost.

 

[Ivanh]

You're not paying attention. We all know what it will do when the controller signal is lost, which is what this thread discussed long before you posted in it. You've done just that. Nothing new. What's being discussed now, is how it will respond if it is already out of range of the controller and then GPS is lost.

Oh damn my apologies, well with tower I've lost signal and it will hover and try to land, sorry for the confusion. Yup I agree the GPS is necessary for it to keep flying and run the missions, otherwise you're sol.

 

[Ivanh]

Oh damn my apologies, well with tower I've lost signal and it will hover and try to land, sorry for the confusion. Yup I agree the GPS is necessary for it to keep flying and run the missions, otherwise you're sol.

This was a cloudy day like yesterday, where it was full overcast.

 

[Jubalr]

Landing is how it would respond to a loss of control signal when GPS is not available. But this the backwards and fairly unusual scenario... A loss of GPS when control signal is not available. FS_EKF_ACTION would kick in when the GPS is lost. And that action is alt hold.

So, how does AC decide which failsafe to use?

I'll have to try it sometime. But I would assume the order would not matter. I would think the program (FW) is simply looking for conditions. No GPS=x, No Controller=y, neither available equal=z. But you know what happens when you assume..

 

[Maxheadspace]

As of the latest firmware update (2.4.1-6), that parameter no longer applies only to auto mode on the Pixhawk. That now affects auto and guided mode. All the smart shots use guided mode. So if you program a smart shot that takes the Solo out of range, or your controller craps out on you in the middle of the shot, it will continue with the shot as programmed.

Thanks for the update, that's good to know. I suppose for the Cable Cam guided mode, if the end points are stored in the flight controller, it should return when it reaches the far end, like a waypoint. I don't want to test it out, though.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

The smart shots are all run by the companion computer. The smart will continue doing whatever it is doing. The case of a cable cam, if you hit the forward/backward button to let it run the cable hands free, it will continue to the end, and just sit there waiting.

 

[Jubalr]

Thanks for the update, that's good to know. I suppose for the Cable Cam guided mode, if the end points are stored in the flight controller, it should return when it reaches the far end, like a waypoint. I don't want to test it out, though.

Like PP said, it would fly to the last point and with no further input would sit there in a hover until battery got low enough kicked in to RTH. Then you would just hope you weren't too far away for it to make it back.

 

[Maxheadspace]

Like PP said, it would fly to the last point and with no further input would sit there in a hover until battery got low enough kicked in to RTH.

Yes, of course. I don't use Cable Cam much. I forgot that you manually trigger it's travel along the "cable". Interesting, Cable Cam is the one guided mode that is not native in Pixhawk (or rather ArduCopter?).

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Yes, of course. I don't use Cable Cam much. I forgot that you manually trigger it's travel along the "cable". Interesting, Cable Cam is the one guided mode that is not native in Pixhawk (or rather ArduCopter?).

The Pixhawk cannot do any of the smart shots natively. Guided Mode is an Arducopter mode in which an external device feeds all flight control commands to the pixhawk directly. That can be the ground station such as Tower or Mission Planner, or a companion computer such as on the Solo. All of the Solo's smart shots put the Pixhawk in Guided Mode and the companion computer does all the work. Even RTH and RTM are guided mode on the pixhawk with the companion computer doing all the worth.

 

[Maxheadspace]

The Pixhawk cannot do any of the smart shots natively.

Circle and Follow Me are standard modes for Pixhawk, just like loiter or stabilize. Maybe it's the definition of "natively" that's off a bit. There isn't a "selfie" or "cable cam" mode with Arducopter, but there's a few others that are interesting, like "drift" or "guided."

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Circle on the pixhawk is nothing at all like the orbit smart shot on the Solo's companion computer. The solo's companion computer is a much more complex and interactive version, and it includes the ability to follow. The native circle in Arducopter does nothing but fly a fixed circle around a point.

There is no such thing as Follow Me mode for the Pixhawk in Arducopter at all. Where you see a ground station app such as Tower doing that, the ground station app is putting the Pixhawk in Guided Mode, and the ground station is feeding it commands. Just like the companion computer does on the solo. The Pixhawk doesn't know it's following something. It's just pointing and flying where it's told to point and fly by the application. Just like you can tap on the screen and tell it to fly somewhere in Tower... that's also Guided Mode.

Drift is a standard Arducopter flight mode, just like Loiter, Alt Hold, Pos Hold, Stabilize, Sport, and Acro. Guided Mode is what a companion computer or application uses to feed commands, such as the Solo's companion computer. It's not a mode you would put it in and fly around with.

 

[Maxheadspace]

Circle on the pixhawk is nothing at all like the orbit smart shot on the Solo's companion computer. The solo's companion computer is a much more complex and interactive version, and it includes the ability to follow. The native circle in Arducopter does nothing but fly a fixed circle around a point.

There is no such thing as Follow Me mode for the Pixhawk in Arducopter at all. Where you see a ground station app such as Tower doing that, the ground station app is putting the Pixhawk in Guided Mode, and the ground station is feeding it commands. Just like the companion computer does on the solo.

Although the degree of control and autonomy is significantly enhanced with the Solo, Circle is pretty much the same as Orbit: circle around a point of interest with the camera facing in. And true, Follow Me is the ground station reading the location of the UAS and adjusting its location, pretty much like all Follow Me modes. But if it's not a "mode" in Pixhawk, it's not a "mode" in Solo. I think we're splitting semantic hairs...

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

On the solo, follow and orbit are SMART SHOTS, not modes in the sense that Fly, Fly Manual, Stabilize, etc are MODES. You often here people say "follow mode", but that is incorrect verbiage. Smart shots, all of them to include orbit and follow, are being choreographed and executed entirely by the companion computer. Just like Cable Cam, Selfie, and Zip. The Pixhawk is not deciding or interacting with the shot at all. It's just operating the motors to carry out what the companion computer wants.

The Arducopter circle mode is a mode you can switch to on the pixhawk, and it will circle around a fixed point at a fixed distances in a fixed direction, from a fixed altitude. There is no user interaction at all other than altitude changes. You cannot adjust the speed, distance, or direction. Those are all fixed parameter values you have to set in advance using Mission Planner or Tower. You cannot make it follow you. And if you manually change the yaw, you will need to stop the circle and restart it to get it pointing back at the middle.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I'll have to try it sometime. But I would assume the order would not matter. I would think the program (FW) is simply looking for conditions. No GPS=x, No Controller=y, neither available equal=z. But you know what happens when you assume..

Release solo-1.4.0 · 3drobotics/ardupilot-solo · GitHub
GPS failsafe behavior has been re-worked significantly. One of the main takeaways is that minor GPS glitches will not result in ALT_HOLD. Catastrophic GPS failure will result in LAND mode.

So this is what it will do if you flash the 1.4.0 or higher Solo Arducopter FW to the pixhawk. It doesn't say what it used to do. But I'm thinking LAND was the prior behavior too. So I suspect you're right.

 

[DavidPhillips]

use this information with extreme caution
there is a parameter you can set in Mission Planner that tells the autopilot to ignore the loss of tx signal failsafe. When set the mission will complete regardless of if you lose signal with the transmitter or not.
Just remember to set it back to on when you are finished, else the RTH feature of solo will not work if you lose connection during normal flight
Also be aware that if on a transmitter ignored mission, the craft loses GPS or suffers some other failure you could be screwed

Set the failsafe to continue mission in Auto. If your not in auto it uses normal failsafe.

 

[DavidPhillips]

Yes, it'll do exactly that as long as the parameters on loss of remote/ground station are set to continue mission. I've sent small pixhawk quads on 5 mile missions, way beyond transmitter range (before the FAA's line of sight rules). It just keeps going, and you have the last waypoint set as a RTL. Once it hits the last one, it turns and makes a direct flight back to the launch spot and lands.



I haven't played with geofencing much, but I would assume you could set one to the maximum distance of your furthest point (with a little extra wiggle room) and it should respect it. But really, if it's on a mission, the only way it should stray from it's set path is if the GPS position fix is glitching, and if that's the case, a geofence isn't going to be effective since it needs to know it's position, which it won't with a glitching GPS fix...

I also setup missions to end near me. No need for RTH while far off. Terrain may be an issue.