GPS Coordinate Go To?

[TinajaEco]

I’m a field biologist and am wondering if there is a way, or simple software, that will allow me to input a specific UTM coordinate and have the drone fly to that location. This would be for a birds nest, burrow, etc.

Thank you.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I think you face more problems than simply getting the drone to the same locations on multiple occasions.
I suspect that you will encounter problems with accurate position holding unless the drone is low.
DJI drones with downward looking sensors (VPS) can accurately hold position using ground based etc. reference points PROVIDING that
1) the drone is low enough for the reference points to be within VPS range.
2) the 'ground' is well lit and has distinctive stationary features.
A sea of waving grass or shrubs may not provided suitable target, night flights are probably out.
Even if you can satisfy those requirements, with the drone so positioned I suspect that the presence of the drone will disturb the birds, possibly causing them to attack the drone and that could be fatal to the bird. If the birds have to fly through the drone's down draught it may be cause them to crash with potentially fatal consequences.

How close to a target do you envisage positioning the drone ?
For close up shots if, for whatever reason, VPS is unusable then I suspect that solely GPS position holding will not be accurate enough to meet you needs I.e. the target may not stay centre screen.
If the drone is stood off such that GPS position holding drift has no perceivable effect then you may need a powerful zoom lenses to get decent images of the birds.

Their may also be legal concerns about flying near nesting sites.
In the long run it might be easier and safer to use ground based cameras.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I’m a field biologist and am wondering if there is a way, or simple software, that will allow me to input a specific UTM coordinate and have the drone fly to that location. This would be for a birds nest, burrow, etc.

Thank you.

If you can find the exact location on the Fly app map from the specific UTM coordinates, you can then create an offline waypoint mission to fly to that location, even if not exact. Once you fly there using the offline waypoint mission, and then find the exact location with the drone, you can manually create a new waypoint at that exact location to turn into a more precise waypoint mission to return in the future.

 

[TinajaEco]

I think you face more problems than simply getting the drone to the same locations on multiple occasions.
I suspect that you will encounter problems with accurate position holding unless the drone is low.
DJI drones with downward looking sensors (VPS) can accurately hold position using ground based etc. reference points PROVIDING that
1) the drone is low enough for the reference points to be within VPS range.
2) the 'ground' is well lit and has distinctive stationary features.
A sea of waving grass or shrubs may not provided suitable target, night flights are probably out.
Even if you can satisfy those requirements, with the drone so positioned I suspect that the presence of the drone will disturb the birds, possibly causing them to attack the drone and that could be fatal to the bird. If the birds have to fly through the drone's down draught it may be cause them to crash with potentially fatal consequences.

How close to a target do you envisage positioning the drone ?
For close up shots if, for whatever reason, VPS is unusable then I suspect that solely GPS position holding will not be accurate enough to meet you needs I.e. the target may not stay centre screen.
If the drone is stood off such that GPS position holding drift has no perceivable effect then you may need a powerful zoom lenses to get decent images of the birds.

Their may also be legal concerns about flying near nesting sites.
In the long run it might be easier and safer to use ground based cameras.

I’m under permit from various agencies in the US and have a history of doing bird /wildlife work with drones.
The drones presence is often less invasive than mine.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I’m under permit from various agencies in the US and have a history of doing bird /wildlife work with drones.
The drones presence is often less invasive than mine.

Fair enough but the problems with GPS only position holding remain.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Fair enough but the problems with GPS only position holding remain.

Really? Isn't that exactly what a Waypoint Mission is designed to do? Follow the same path to specific points repeatedly?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Really? Isn't that exactly what a Waypoint Mission is designed to do? Follow the same path to specific points repeatedly?

In theory yes it is but if it is intended that the drone be a few tens of feet from the subject then in practise even if the drone returns to nominally the same coordinates the error in GPS may be too great, beside the drone may drift whilst hovering, then there is wind to consider.
There have been several thread where people have complained about drones, that were close to the subject, moving off target when relying solely on GPS.

I suspect that in the absence of VPS, GPS error etc. and wind will combine to ruin the consistency of close up shots, that is if close up shots are the desired result.

Try a night flight in deep darkness without illuminating the ground beneath the drone, hover the drone at below head height and see how close to the drone you would be prepared to stand..
I wouldn't want to stand very close, whereas in daylight I have stood, in confidence, with the drone at face height and the props 12 inches from my face, windless day of course.
I do that quite frequently with a mini indoors.

 

[DougMcC]

I can hover over a photography position and have a stable screen and video image in even choppy air thanks to GPS and gimbal stability. I zeroed in on encampments in our city at 150 feet above the ground studying human biology/sociology with absolutely stable images. The 90 degree down gimbal shot photograph location was exact and reproducible.

 

[anotherlab]

I’m a field biologist and am wondering if there is a way, or simple software, that will allow me to input a specific UTM coordinate and have the drone fly to that location. This would be for a birds nest, burrow, etc.

Thank you.

Depending on the drone model, you can use an app like Litchi to program a flight path, take pictures or video, and fly back to your starting point.

You can also program waypoints with the DJI Go Fly and Go 4 apps.

 

[MS Coast]

Is it correct to assume that after the drone flies to the base location, the pilot would then maneuver it to allow a direct observation or photographs of the specific target? There's a normal variation induced into GPS signals that could cause of difference of a few yards in the real location of the UTM coordinates.

 

[Dave Maine]

Civilian Accuracy is +- 16 ft 95% of the time. Generally around 8 ft, but not guaranteed

 

[anotherlab]

If you need accurate positioning, consumer drones will not be precise enough. If you want to program a flight path and need better than 3m precision, then you will need a drone that has RTK (Real-time kinematic). That will bring the positional accuracy down to 1-2 CM. And that brings you to a more expensive flying budget with the RTK gear on the drone and the base station.

 

[TinajaEco]

If you need accurate positioning, consumer drones will not be precise enough. If you want to program a flight path and need better than 3m precision, then you will need a drone that has RTK (Real-time kinematic). That will bring the positional accuracy down to 1-2 CM. And that brings you to a more expensive flying budget with the RTK gear on the drone and the base station.

My Air 3 and Mini 4 get it done just fine. I don’t need legal survey level accuracy. 15-20ft is good enough and then I visually zero in from there.
I primarily work in the Mojave and tend to have a long VLOS. If I can find a fast way to plug in a UTM for a desert kit fiox den, as an example, and then hover over for 15-20 minutes to determine whether it’s active or not, it’s a lot more efficient than setting up game cams, etc. Tweekers love stealing game cams, also, which gets expensive…

 

[MS Coast]

My Air 3 and Mini 4 get it done just fine. I don’t need legal survey level accuracy. 15-20ft is good enough and then I visually zero in from there.
I primarily work in the Mojave and tend to have a long VLOS. If I can find a fast way to plug in a UTM for a desert kit fiox den, as an example, and then hover over for 15-20 minutes to determine whether it’s active or not, it’s a lot more efficient than setting up game cams, etc. Tweekers love stealing game cams, also, which gets expensive…

There are a number of approaches, but nothing that I'm aware of that would allow entering coordinates directly in the Fly App. Assuming that you're working with a reasonable number of known locations, programming them as waypoints in advance should be workable. There are a number of people on this forum who are very knowledgeable about creating and using waypoint flights; perhaps they'll offer some suggestions for a straightforward procedure.

There are some archived discussions on this topic that might be helpful.

• How to fly to GPS coordinates?
• Possible to send the drone to a specific set of GPS coordinates?

Here's a brief tutorial on using Litchi to fly to a particular location.

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[PepperBird]

I’m a field biologist and am wondering if there is a way, or simple software, that will allow me to input a specific UTM coordinate and have the drone fly to that location. This would be for a birds nest, burrow, etc.

Thank you.

We use DroneLink with the following drones to capture the same GPS locations:
Mini 2, Mini 3 Pro, Air 2S
I own an Air 3 but DJI has not released an SDK for the type of mission planning we need.

FYI: DJI offers this type of service in its enterprise drones, which cost enterprise money!

 

[TinajaEco]

We use DroneLink with the following drones to capture the same GPS locations:
Mini 2, Mini 3 Pro, Air 2S
I own an Air 3 but DJI has not released an SDK for the type of mission planning we need.

FYI: DJI offers this type of service in its enterprise drones, which cost enterprise money!

I wish they’d off an enterprise drone in an Air 3 size. I walk a lot of miles to get to remote sites. The Air and Mini best serve my needs and fit in my pack without much fussing.

I just sold my Mavic 3 Pro to a forum member as it was just too cumbersome to deal for most of my purposes.

 

[hank970]

As an old, retired national park ranger and volunteer avocational archaeologist, I routinely use a hand-held Garmin (and sometimes a Trimble) GPS receiver to plot the locations, in UTMs, of cultural sites on national parklands. For me, using UTMs is far more intuitive and, because UTMs are expressed as meters from fixed references, they lend themselves to direct, on-the-ground measurements of distance from one point to the next. Would a non-specialized, enthusiast-grade drone like the Air 3 identify locations in lat/long or UTM? I'd guess the former. If I'm right, then even if there were a way to program a controller to send a drone to a precise point, conversion from lat/long to UTMs via some external device would first be necessary.

 

[TinajaEco]

As an old, retired national park ranger and volunteer avocational archaeologist, I routinely use a hand-held Garmin (and sometimes a Trimble) GPS receiver to plot the locations, in UTMs, of cultural sites on national parklands. For me, using UTMs is far more intuitive and, because UTMs are expressed as meters from fixed references, they lend themselves to direct, on-the-ground measurements of distance from one point to the next. Would a non-specialized, enthusiast-grade drone like the Air 3 identify locations in lat/long or UTM? I'd guess the former. If I'm right, then even if there were a way to program a controller to send a drone to a precise point, conversion from lat/long to UTMs via some external device would first be necessary.

We only use UTM in the field. Anything else is just stupid. I do a lot of USFWS work doing population extrapolation surveys. Doing this we generally walk straight 3k transects in a square form. Only way to do this efficiently and maintain a reasonably straight line is by using the UTM meters as a guide. It’s a far better system than trying to follow a GPS track.

 

[anotherlab]

We only use UTM in the field. Anything else is just stupid. I do a lot of USFWS work doing population extrapolation surveys. Doing this we generally walk straight 3k transects in a square form. Only way to do this efficiently and maintain a reasonably straight line is by using the UTM meters as a guide. It’s a far better system than trying to follow a GPS track.

The flight control apps like Litchi are working off maps that are using lat/lon.

To use UTM, you would need to convert from UTM coordinate pairs to lat/lon. Litchi has the ability to import KML files to define a path. There are online utilities to convert from UITM to KML.

 

[TinajaEco]

The flight control apps like Litchi are working off maps that are using lat/lon.

To use UTM, you would need to convert from UTM coordinate pairs to lat/lon. Litchi has the ability to import KML files to define a path. There are online utilities to convert from UITM to KML.

I use the Gaia app this conversion. It’s super easy to convert KMZ, KML GPX with Gaia also.