Grid Waypoint Mission Tool for Litchi

[blimolhm]

I've been working on a tool which generates grid missions for use within Litchi. The designer generates 2D points which get processed by Litchi in an attempt to maintain constant height above terrain.

The site for now is at ancient.land

There's a video explainer here:

1. Draw a home point (green) which acts as the first waypoint. This is where your drone should be standing on the ground.
2. Draw a polygon for the area of interest
3. Adjust the parameters in the hamburger menu
4. Save to local machine
5. Upload the csv file via Litchi Mission Hub and save to account
6. Fly mission via Litchi

There are many visual improvements and website bug fixes to be added in due time.

- Flight time indicator is currently overly optimistic, only based on total distance / speed. Be conservative.
- User must ensure their mission is safe and logical before flying. Tool does not guarantee safe/legal flight.
- Height above terrain depends on Litchi's DEM being queried. Flying near cliffs is still extremely risky due to the difference between ground truth and interpolated lower resolution DEM values.
- A number of people have already flown missions based on the tool, but camera settings for many models are yet to be verified as accurate.

Please test flight on flat, clear land at 50% frontlap and 50% sidelap.
Ensure your RTH path is clear from obstacles at either mission end or mid mission for a battery swap.
You can export to KML from Litchi and observe the mission in Google Earth Pro.

Leave feedback and suggestions!

 

[cheerio123]

Will you post it on Github so others can contribute?

 

[Lufthansa]

Hi, you can just use One Click Drone - Your Flight. It already has all those features and the interface is even better!!

 

[MikeBuck]

Hi, you can just use One Click Drone - Your Flight. It already has all those features and the interface is even better!!

Well I don't see any trials or "free" use.....

 

[FireFlyer451]

This looks very cool. Is there a way to tell it to take all video for the entire flight? Instead of photos? I see that you can already specify the gimbal angle, very nice. I would use this for building a SAR mission grid, but I want to capture video.

Thanks

 

[Chuck715]

Just tried your tool for my Mavic 2 Pro. Its really cool but I have an small issue which maybe you can explain for me. In the Mission Designer, the GSD setting seems to increase or decrease the density of the of grid lines. But it also seems to set the altitude for each waypoint to be the same as the density distance. I wanted my mission to fly at about 150 feet but I don't necessarily want the GSD that the 150 would yield if I set it that way. I want to control altitude separate from the density of the grid lines. Any thoughts?

 

[Chuck715]

Just tried your tool for my Mavic 2 Pro. Its really cool but I have an small issue which maybe you can explain for me. In the Mission Designer, the GSD setting seems to increase or decrease the density of the of grid lines. But it also seems to set the altitude for each waypoint to be the same as the density distance. I wanted my mission to fly at about 150 feet but I don't necessarily want the GSD that the 150 would yield if I set it that way. I want to control altitude separate from the density of the grid lines. Any thoughts?

Never mind. I sort of get it now after using the grid tool for a number of missions. The altitude is pretty much derived by the type of camera on your drone plus the number of photo points on your grid. If you want fewer points, you must go higher so each shot still has some overlap. The adding more points usually means flying lower because each shot covers less area. The tool is really cool and worked well for me. You can always tweak the generated mission on the Litchi side if you wish.

 

[Chuck715]

This looks very cool. Is there a way to tell it to take all video for the entire flight? Instead of photos? I see that you can already specify the gimbal angle, very nice. I would use this for building a SAR mission grid, but I want to capture video.

Thanks

I've only used this tool a few times so I am no expert but I am confident that if you go through the process and download the mission into Litchi on your RC control side, you could mass update all the gimbal and take picture commands out of the waypoints. Then you could just modify waypoint 1 to "start recording", or just manually start it before you start the mission.

 

[Chuck715]

My question for this app is... is it better to take 9x16 size or 2x3 size photos for better stitching? I feel like with the wider photos I am getting too much overlap which causes too much parallax effect in the stitching. I know I can adjust the overlap percentage but I just wanted to know if the app assumes a standard 2x3 size picture with its default values.

 

[gnbrotz]

First of all, thanks to the OP for this tool. Combined with Litchi Mission Hub, it has made my first dabbling into orthomosaics and mapping incredibly successful.

I do have one question: What is the "Alternate Directions" (to the left of "Geolocate") supposed to do? After creating a sample mission, I can't see a discernable change in either the settings or the graphic representation of my plans when I click this button.

 

[Chuck715]

With "Alternate Directions" set, the drones heading will always face the direction of flight. With the "Single Direction" set, the drone will always keep the same heading regardless of the drones direction of flight. It will fly backwards on the return legs of the grid to keep the drone and camera always facing the same way. I used this so all my pictures were oriented the same because I wasn't sure if my stitching software would rotate the pictures to line up outbound and inbound legs. Hope this answers your question.

 

[gnbrotz]

With "Alternate Directions" set, the drones heading will always face the direction of flight. With the "Single Direction" set, the drone will always keep the same heading regardless of the drones direction of flight. It will fly backwards on the return legs of the grid to keep the drone and camera always facing the same way. I used this so all my pictures were oriented the same because I wasn't sure if my stitching software would rotate the pictures to line up outbound and inbound legs. Hope this answers your question.

It most certainly does, and while my software does ok with passes in both directions, I do have to tweak all of the points on each end, so the photos aren't taken upon arrival at the waypoint, and before the drone has fully turned for the next pass. Understanding how that button works should definitely save me some work!

Thank you.

ETA - I tried the Single Direction setting, but when imported into Litchi Mission Hub, it still shows passes in alternating directions, and the heading settings for the individual waypoints reflect that as well.

 

[Kunal.N]

This is a great tool, thank you for developing it.

I have one question/request I was wondering if it was possible to add support for DJI Mavic 3 Classic or non-pro wide angle lens. This would help with planning grid mapping on the DJI drones that have newer lenses but not the enterprise level, which is just out of reach for some of us who are just starting out.

 

[AMann]

This is a great tool, thank you for developing it.

I have one question/request I was wondering if it was possible to add support for DJI Mavic 3 Classic or non-pro wide angle lens. This would help with planning grid mapping on the DJI drones that have newer lenses but not the enterprise level, which is just out of reach for some of us who are just starting out.

Unfortunately, Mavic 3’s will not work with Litchi- even on the Enterprise version. Thank DJI for this.

 

[WolfPilot]

There was an update to the SDK, so the 3s are now supported.
Is there a github repo where we could help you?

 

[honkihonk]

There was an update to the SDK, so the 3s are now supported.
Is there a github repo where we could help you?

Are you saying the Mavic 3 non-enterprise versions are now supported by the SDK? Can you point me to a source? I can't find it on the dji developer website.

 

[ProbablyCrazier]

The site for now is at ancient.land

This is absolutely AMAZING!
Thank you!

Any way to include Mini 3 Pro or a Mini 4?

 

[Kunal.N]

Unfortunately, Mavic 3’s will not work with Litchi- even on the Enterprise version. Thank DJI for this.

Yes that is correct, but I was thinking about the following workflow for the Mavic 3 Enterprise:

1. making the route on your website
2. Import the CSV into Litchi Waypoint Mission to DJI Fly Waypoint Mission which would create the KMZ
3. Import the KMZ to RC Pro using the built in import feature
4. Update the route with the correct parameters directly on the controller

This is a convoluted process but it seems to be the easiest way to create routes on a computer for better planning than using the small touch screen.

 

[honkihonk]

Yes that is correct, but I was thinking about the following workflow for the Mavic 3 Enterprise:

1. making the route on your website
2. Import the CSV into Litchi Waypoint Mission to DJI Fly Waypoint Mission which would create the KMZ
3. Import the KMZ to RC Pro using the built in import feature
4. Update the route with the correct parameters directly on the controller

This is a convoluted process but it seems to be the easiest way to create routes on a computer for better planning than using the small touch screen.

If you are using the Mavic 3 Enterprise why don't you use DJI Flighthub 2 to create the routes on a computer?

 

[Kunal.N]

If you are using the Mavic 3 Enterprise why don't you use DJI Flighthub 2 to create the routes on a computer?

I did not consider using Flighthub 2 since I am so used to using workarounds for DJI products. Thank you for the recommendation. Please disregard my earlier request.