Terrain hugging coming

[erikgraham]

I haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd post it. Some of you may have noticed params in Tower or Mission planner called Terrain_Enable and Terrain_Follow. These allow the drone to "hug" the terrain during auto missions and modes like RTL (folks around here often refer to RTL as "RTH," which is really a DJI accronym). So for example, if your drone is trying to RTL and there is a hill in the way, it will automatically fly up, over, and back down the other side of the hill. This works in guided mode as well (Follow Me is a form of guided mode).

The catch is that terrain following has only ever worked for arduPlane, i.e. for fixed wing "airplane" drones. But the good news is that it's coming to arduCopter 3.4 or 3.5 (Solo uses arduCopter). It's very likely that terrain hugging (along with the highly sought after "boat mode") will be merged into Solo's arduCopter branch.

Don't get too excited though. Terrain hugging relies on terrain data, not sonar or laser range finders. Terrain data around the world is not super accurate. It can be off by 20 meters or more. Also the horizantal resolution is something like 100 meters (actually I *think* it's higher resolution in the US). if you are flying at a high enough altitude above ground level to start with, there should still be enough wiggle room to work with (after all, it works for planes already).

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on terrain hugging as I don't fly unmanned planes. Please feel free to make corrections if I've gotten something wrong. I do know for certain that Mission Planner docs mention it coming to arduCopter 3.4.

 

[franknitty69]

i fly arduplane with lidar and terrain following. its awesome. i love how you can control terrain spacing which increases or decreases the amount of terrain data stored. this will be huge for copter + solo, but for it to be more accurate requires sonar or lidar.

 

[EyeWingsuit]

I haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd post it. Some of you may have noticed params in Tower or Mission planner called Terrain_Enable and Terrain_Follow. These allow the drone to "hug" the terrain during auto missions and modes like RTL (folks around here often refer to RTL as "RTH," which is really a DJI accronym). So for example, if your drone is trying to RTL and there is a hill in the way, it will automatically fly up, over, and back down the other side of the hill. This works in guided mode as well (Follow Me is a form of guided mode).

The catch is that terrain following has only ever worked for arduPlane, i.e. for fixed wing "airplane" drones. But the good news is that it's coming to arduCopter 3.4 or 3.5 (Solo uses arduCopter). It's very likely that terrain hugging (along with the highly sought after "boat mode") will be merged into Solo's arduCopter branch.

Don't get too excited though. Terrain hugging relies on terrain data, not sonar or laser range finders. Terrain data around the world is not super accurate. It can be off by 20 meters or more. Also the horizantal resolution is something like 100 meters (actually I *think* it's higher resolution in the US). if you are flying at a high enough altitude above ground level to start with, there should still be enough wiggle room to work with (after all, it works for planes already).

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on terrain hugging as I don't fly unmanned planes. Please feel free to make corrections if I've gotten something wrong. I do know for certain that Mission Planner docs mention it coming to arduCopter 3.4.

Excellent news, Erik!! This will be terrific for some applications.

 

[Steve K]

This will really enhance "Follow Me".

 

[CanadianSolo]

I haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd post it. Some of you may have noticed params in Tower or Mission planner called Terrain_Enable and Terrain_Follow. These allow the drone to "hug" the terrain during auto missions and modes like RTL (folks around here often refer to RTL as "RTH," which is really a DJI accronym). So for example, if your drone is trying to RTL and there is a hill in the way, it will automatically fly up, over, and back down the other side of the hill. This works in guided mode as well (Follow Me is a form of guided mode).

The catch is that terrain following has only ever worked for arduPlane, i.e. for fixed wing "airplane" drones. But the good news is that it's coming to arduCopter 3.4 or 3.5 (Solo uses arduCopter). It's very likely that terrain hugging (along with the highly sought after "boat mode") will be merged into Solo's arduCopter branch.

Don't get too excited though. Terrain hugging relies on terrain data, not sonar or laser range finders. Terrain data around the world is not super accurate. It can be off by 20 meters or more. Also the horizantal resolution is something like 100 meters (actually I *think* it's higher resolution in the US). if you are flying at a high enough altitude above ground level to start with, there should still be enough wiggle room to work with (after all, it works for planes already).

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on terrain hugging as I don't fly unmanned planes. Please feel free to make corrections if I've gotten something wrong. I do know for certain that Mission Planner docs mention it coming to arduCopter 3.4.

I don't do much of Auto flights either, however your correct to say that the terrain data is inaccurate. I work for a communications company and we do Microwave point to point shots fairly regularly. We use terrain data to plot our line of sight paths/elevations. We have to also add in the trees and "Clutter" because there are 2 forms of terrain data. Scanned from satellites from space only show terrain data to the GROUND, it does not take into effect tree heights or "clutter". So when we do microwave shots we have to include clutter and add an extra 40'-100' in our altitude. I would use caution using this Parameter and maybe include a little higher altitudes for clutter if autonomous flight is desired!????

Thats all that i know. I will be experimenting with Tower a little bit more once the damn Canadian snow goes away here soon... .its almost gone!

 

[erikgraham]

I don't do much of Auto flights either, however your correct to say that the terrain data is inaccurate. I work for a communications company and we do Microwave point to point shots fairly regularly. We use terrain data to plot our line of sight paths/elevations. We have to also add in the trees and "Clutter" because there are 2 forms of terrain data. Scanned from satellites from space only show terrain data to the GROUND, it does not take into effect tree heights or "clutter". So when we do microwave shots we have to include clutter and add an extra 40'-100' in our altitude. I would use caution using this Parameter and maybe include a little higher altitudes for clutter if autonomous flight is desired!????

Thats all that i know. I will be experimenting with Tower a little bit more once the damn Canadian snow goes away here soon... .its almost gone!

Reading here (see link), they recommend a minimum altitude of 60 meters. This page has good info about accuracy and spacing. Also, at the very top it mentions about the functionality being added to copter.

Anyway, most that was written for planes. 60 meters is a good start, but I imagine we'll have to experiment a lot when it's available for copters to find what's best. It will also depend on the surroundings and terrain.

common-Terrain Following | Copter

 

[ibrew]

As someone who lives and fly's in the mountains and has a boat, I look forward to this feature **Much** more than the boat mode.

I wonder, though, how this will play into maximum altitude. For instance, depending on where I take off from, I can easily take off and fly up to 400 feet, then fly horizontally 400 feet and be at either 800 feet above the ground or crashed into the side of a mountain. I'm not certain how the FAA guidelines deal with this scenario, but I'm pretty sure the way the altitude limit currently works on the solo (without taking terrain into consideration) doesn't mesh with the spirit of their guidelines.

 

[Jonty]

Our mine site already has very accurate DEM (digital elevation model data).
I would it be just fantastic if Tower could allow import of this data.

I already Write (upload) terrain hugging missions from MP into my Solo,
but agree that current Google Earth terrain data (especially for Sierra Leone) is sketchy.
And....Google Earth elevation data is very behind terrain created by mining.

Does anyone know it it's possible to import custom DEM data into Mission Planner?

 

[Jonty]

An answer to my own question.
Yes apparently it is possible, and relatively easy.

See link below.
Using our own vertical data for mission planning?

This was a solution from Michael Oborne.
Mission Planner uses geotiff format for elevation data.
1. load elevation data in globalmapper (or any other GIS platform)
2. check projection is wgs84
3. export elevation data as 16/32bit geotiff
4. place geotiff in srtm folder.
5. test data is loading from the geotiff.

Fly away!

 

[SPP]

i fly arduplane with lidar and terrain following.

Holy Crap !!! LIDAR ... man I am super jelous ...

 

[SPP]

An answer to my own question.
Yes apparently it is possible, and relatively easy.

See link below.
Using our own vertical data for mission planning?

This was a solution from Michael Oborne.
Mission Planner uses geotiff format for elevation data.
1. load elevation data in globalmapper (or any other GIS platform)
2. check projection is wgs84
3. export elevation data as 16/32bit geotiff
4. place geotiff in srtm folder.
5. test data is loading from the geotiff.

Hi Jonty,
On my previous office Laptop, I have lots of marine maps collection from FUGAWI.
One of the freebies was USA topo map in the CD along with Navionics marine chart.
Now its not available anymore, but it is similar to this one :
Fugawi Topo App

Do you think this is accurate enough for US users ?

Me unlucky dude, our government topo map is either non existent unless for cities or not for public consumption... LOL.

.

 

[fpvsteve]

Holy Crap !!! LIDAR ... man I am super jelous ...

.... nothing impossible
Lidar-based ground collision checking for 3DR Solo - Hackster.io

 

[SPP]

Wah, way too much DIY for me, I am IT dummy