5P has that crazy Air 3S RTH under trees, through buildings

[Droning on and on...]

Wasn't obvious to me, but it worked when I tested it. Yes, the Mini 5P will follow a complex path during RTH that goes under tree canopies, through underground parking lots, all without GPS, just like the Air 3S. Did a simple test yesterday, took off from a table outside in a covered area, and it followed the outbound path in reverse during RTH and landed right back on the table!!

Watch:

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[MS Coast]

Unless I can set the speed to about 0.2 mph and monitor the entire return, I'll not be trusting this feature quite yet.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I agree, and won't be using it. I wanted to see if it was there, and was quite impressed seeing it work.

 

[BossBob]

It does show how much computing power is going in to these mini drones now. It must be using the LiDAR to map its surroundings as the drone is piloted out into open space then using that map to guide itself back to the takeoff point through the obstacles and land under RTH. I notice the drone rotates orientation to match takeoff heading just like the Mavic Pro did in 2016/7.

 

[Rchawks]

Impressive!

 

[Droning on and on...]

I was quite impressed at how it duplicated on return the outbound path low to the ground through a corridor with the house on one side and trees/bushes on the other, maybe 10 feet wide. Then, of course, sliding under the patio roof and landing on the table was amazing.

While all this working successfully all the time makes me a bit nervous, I'm happy to have this capability in the most extreme of catastrophes, that is, a disconnection due to some hardware failure in the drone's radio or the RC. While it's a bad practice, I take off from "complex environments" like that now and then, and in the past an RTH landing that I would have no control over would end up landing in treetops or on a roof because the HP was underneath.

This adds another layer of safety to the system that is great to have, and for an engineer and tech geek, is just so cool.