As drones gets more and more advance, there'll be more intelligent built-in fail-safe system to prevent crashes and loss of drone. But it should be part of normal usage. And don't be complacent about it.
As a control systems engineer, I thought I explain my point of view.
There are usually 2 level of alarms, the first is to let the operator know a system is operating outside normal safety parameters. The second alarm is more critical, and the control system takes over to prevent failure, in the event the operator fails to address the first alarm. For example, a system monitoring a high pressure tank. The first high alarm lets the operator know that something might be wrong, and should look into bring the pressure down the below the high level. If the second high high alarm is triggered, the control system takes over, either opening relief valve or shuts the system down to prevent a catastrophe. The control system assumes the operator has fallen asleep on the wheel or has no idea what to do. The system was meant to operate below the high level alarm. Many an engineering disaster occurs when operators think the system can run between the high and high high level, relying on the fail-safe to prevent a disaster. But when the fail-safe fails, we have a problem. Programming how something should operated normally is easy. Making something foolproof, predicting the millions of ways how a human can break a system is almost impossible. As far as technology goes, Artificial Intelligence is still no match for Natural Stupidity.
Back to our drones. Our Mavics have fail-safes, like the fail-safe RTH in the event of loss of connection to the RC. When there's a weak connection between AC and RC, there's a warning on the DJI Go 4 app. It's to let the pilot know to do something about it, as in, to improve connection. Not keep flying until loss of connection and just wait to RTH to kick in. And if that happens, when connection is re-establish, it doesn't mean you stop the RTH, turn your drone around and try again with whatever you were trying to do the first time. You are just pushing your luck, and eventually, it might run out. Not only would you have lost of visuals and control of the drone when the RC and AC disconnects, you've also lost telemetry in the flight logs. So, if the fail-safe fails, you might have difficulty finding your drone, and even if you do, the likelihood of finding it intact without a scratch is very slim.
Our drones are an expensive investment, not a $1000 boomerang you throw and assumes it'll always come back.
As a control systems engineer, I thought I explain my point of view.
There are usually 2 level of alarms, the first is to let the operator know a system is operating outside normal safety parameters. The second alarm is more critical, and the control system takes over to prevent failure, in the event the operator fails to address the first alarm. For example, a system monitoring a high pressure tank. The first high alarm lets the operator know that something might be wrong, and should look into bring the pressure down the below the high level. If the second high high alarm is triggered, the control system takes over, either opening relief valve or shuts the system down to prevent a catastrophe. The control system assumes the operator has fallen asleep on the wheel or has no idea what to do. The system was meant to operate below the high level alarm. Many an engineering disaster occurs when operators think the system can run between the high and high high level, relying on the fail-safe to prevent a disaster. But when the fail-safe fails, we have a problem. Programming how something should operated normally is easy. Making something foolproof, predicting the millions of ways how a human can break a system is almost impossible. As far as technology goes, Artificial Intelligence is still no match for Natural Stupidity.
Back to our drones. Our Mavics have fail-safes, like the fail-safe RTH in the event of loss of connection to the RC. When there's a weak connection between AC and RC, there's a warning on the DJI Go 4 app. It's to let the pilot know to do something about it, as in, to improve connection. Not keep flying until loss of connection and just wait to RTH to kick in. And if that happens, when connection is re-establish, it doesn't mean you stop the RTH, turn your drone around and try again with whatever you were trying to do the first time. You are just pushing your luck, and eventually, it might run out. Not only would you have lost of visuals and control of the drone when the RC and AC disconnects, you've also lost telemetry in the flight logs. So, if the fail-safe fails, you might have difficulty finding your drone, and even if you do, the likelihood of finding it intact without a scratch is very slim.
Our drones are an expensive investment, not a $1000 boomerang you throw and assumes it'll always come back.
