Flying laps over a track

[vsbflightfly]

For my research I am trying to make my DJI drone (P3S) fly laps over a 400m track (like a regular athletics or speed skate track) using Litchi waypoints mission. See an example of one lap in the image attached.

I am facing two issues:

1. Although all my waypoints have a curve size >0 and the speed doesn't change much among the waypoints (max 1 kmph change), the bird doesn't make smooth corners. It sometimes 'hesitates' when it arrives at a waypoint in a corner. As I am trying to simulate the smooth corners of a speed skater, this is very troublesome to my research.

2. When I am flying at a high speed over the straight parts of the track, the bird is significantly lowering in altitude. The altitude is set to 4 m, but when flying at 50 kmph for 100 m, the altitude drops to almost ground level. Is this an issue of the Phantom 3 S specifically, or do also the newer drones face this issue?

Anyone with some advice?

 

[GFields]

Uncheck "private" from the Mission hub and send the link. I'll gladly take a look

 

[Tiger64]

You might need new props if losing height when flying fast line. They might have deformed a little over time reducing lift.
I don't have a p3 but have had that with other drones in my fleet

 

[vsbflightfly]

Uncheck "private" from the Mission hub and send the link. I'll gladly take a look

Mission Hub - Litchi

Litchi's Mission Hub lets you plan waypoint flights and later execute them using the mobile Litchi app.

flylitchi.com

 

[vsbflightfly]

Mission Hub - Litchi

Litchi's Mission Hub lets you plan waypoint flights and later execute them using the mobile Litchi app.

flylitchi.com

Thanks a lot in advance!

The goal of my research is to let a speed skater pace better with help of a drone. So I make several junior speed skaters skate a 1500 m , then I analyse their laps to see where they could improve their pace. Then I set the drone to fly at that 'optimal' pace, together with the speed skater. He or she can then take not of where the drone flies to better make decisions on how to distribute energy over the race. Therefore, the speeds must be quite high

 

[GFields]

Thanks a lot in advance!

The goal of my research is to let a speed skater pace better with help of a drone. So I make several junior speed skaters skate a 1500 m , then I analyse their laps to see where they could improve their pace. Then I set the drone to fly at that 'optimal' pace, together with the speed skater. He or she can then take not of where the drone flies to better make decisions on how to distribute energy over the race. Therefore, the speeds must be quite high

The first thing that popped out at me is the inconsistency of speeds.

In the settings, you have the cruising speed at 4.0 mph with varied speeds at waypoints: WP1 8.8, WP2 9.9, WP3 10.0 and so on. This is why you are seeing the drone speed up and slow down.

My suggestion would be to set the cruising speed to what you think the skater will be, say 5.0 and then leave all waypoints set to "cruising" and in doing so, the drone will fly at a constant 5.0 mph. You can always adjust the cruising speed in the settings if you need to.

Secondly, you have various heights in each WP: WP 1 12', WP2 9' hence the lowering. From my perspective, these heights are pretty low. You don't need to be right on top of the skater. I would increase the heights to around 15-20 and use the same height for all WPs

Thirdly, you have "Interpolate selected in the settings but do not use the function in any of the WPs. I suggest setting the default Gimbal Pitch Mode to "Disabled"

This is my take on it and hopes it helps. Let me know.