Hat Tip to DJI: A Message From An Impressed Engineer

[MavicMikeGA]

I flew a westward mission around 10 AM yesterday morning (location: Georgia, USA) which put the rising Sun at my back. I flew out about 2500 feet, had a look around at the nice landscape then hit RTH for the heck of it. The Mavic turned about and headed eastward (facing the Sun) home but about 200 feet from the home site the Mavic saw the Sun and sounded an obstacle avoidance alarm. This is common. We've all seen this but I didn't intervene because I was curious as to what the Mavic would do since it had a command (RTH) and it had an obstacle that it would never get around.

After two attempts of moving forward, the Mavic turned off obstacle avoidance then progressed the last 200 feet and made a safe decent. Now before you rant with, "but what if that wasn't the Sun? Maybe a tree, house, or a tree house - sure; there are moments when this may not have worked out so well but in this moment it did. It was a clever solution that the Mavic came to under its own devise. Therefore, I give a Hat Tip to DJI for giving the Mavic a brain.

 

[Starz]

Now if they could just train their customer support team to react that way, i think there would be quite a few people that may smile.

 

[MavicPro5280]

I flew a westward mission around 10 AM yesterday morning (location: Georgia, USA) which put the rising Sun at my back. I flew out about 2500 feet, had a look around at the nice landscape then hit RTH for the heck of it. The Mavic turned about and headed eastward (facing the Sun) home but about 200 feet from the home site the Mavic saw the Sun and sounded an obstacle avoidance alarm. This is common. We've all seen this but I didn't intervene because I was curious as to what the Mavic would do since it had a command (RTH) and it had an obstacle that it would never get around.

After two attempts of moving forward, the Mavic turned off obstacle avoidance then progressed the last 200 feet and made a safe decent. Now before you rant with, "but what if that wasn't the Sun? Maybe a tree, house, or a tree house - sure; there are moments when this may not have worked out so well but in this moment it did. It was a clever solution that the Mavic came to under its own devise. Therefore, I give a Hat Tip to DJI for giving the Mavic a brain.

Wouldn't it be the MP pilot's fault for not setting the RTH altitude higher if it was in fact a tree instead of the sun?

sent from mobile device

 

[Bunny Too]

Well said

 

[MavicMikeGA]

Wouldn't it be the MP pilot's fault for not setting the RTH altitude higher if it was in fact a tree instead of the sun?

sent from mobile device

Yep. You can't fix stupid.

 

[sonof40]

Were the two attempts by the pilot or by the MP on its own?

 

[_milo_]

was this on the .0400 firmware?

 

[MavicMikeGA]

Were the two attempts by the pilot or by the MP on its own?

MP. I was completely hands off.

 

[dewster]

I was impressed with RTH too. The Mavic is rock steady. There's so much tech and safety features inside.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[MavicMikeGA]

was this on the .0400 firmware?

Yes. Latest firmware.

 

[Jenee]

I flew a westward mission around 10 AM yesterday morning (location: Georgia, USA) which put the rising Sun at my back. I flew out about 2500 feet, had a look around at the nice landscape then hit RTH for the heck of it. The Mavic turned about and headed eastward (facing the Sun) home but about 200 feet from the home site the Mavic saw the Sun and sounded an obstacle avoidance alarm. This is common. We've all seen this but I didn't intervene because I was curious as to what the Mavic would do since it had a command (RTH) and it had an obstacle that it would never get around.

After two attempts of moving forward, the Mavic turned off obstacle avoidance then progressed the last 200 feet and made a safe decent. Now before you rant with, "but what if that wasn't the Sun? Maybe a tree, house, or a tree house - sure; there are moments when this may not have worked out so well but in this moment it did. It was a clever solution that the Mavic came to under its own devise. Therefore, I give a Hat Tip to DJI for giving the Mavic a brain.

I would love my Mavic to do this. Just wondering if you have some particular setting either on or off for this to happen.

 

[znuttyone]

this has not been my experience nor the experience of others.. see Litchi locked me out, crashed!

If anyone wants to duplicate the conditions to see this behavior, here are the steps.
Perform this test when the Sun is low on the horizon , 2 hours before sunset or less will do.
Steps
1- Set "RTH Obstacle Check" on.
2- Set a reasonable Return-to-Home Altitude above any obstacles that would be in the flight path (45M is what I had)
3- Set Max Flight Altitude to a distance higher than the RTH Altitude ( 200M is good for this test) not I have seen Mavic ignor this limit and climb all the way to 500M ( 1640ft) the hard altitude limit they have programed in, so be sure you have a full charge if you are going to test this.
3-Set the home location
4-Fly the Mavic above your RTH Altitude, Fly East from your position 100ft or so, in my case it was 450ft.. and 150ft high
5- hit RTH.

Observations: as soon as I hit RTH the AC will turn around, and if the sun is low on the horizon it might fly forward for a few ft, but then if fill flash obstacle on the console and began to climb, the controller will cycle between obstacle and Going Home, but basically it was climbing vertically and not moving back to home.

I did this test 6 times, 3 times with RTH Obstacle check set, 3 times with it off. All 3 times with RTH Obstacle set performed the same.. Climbed well above the RTH Altitude. The 3 times with RTH Obstacle Off, AC rose to the predefined RTH Altitude and returned home.

I also tested Flying west so return was not into the sun, in this case the controller never flashed Obstacle and the AC came home at the RTH altitude.
I also tested this in the morning with the morning sun on the horizon.. same behavior.

I should probably advise those that want to test this how to get the AC home if you test this..
Simply go into Sport mode and fly it home.. or cancel RTH, go into the advanced settings under visual navigation settings in the DJI Go app and Turn off "RTH Obstacle Check" , then go back and hit RTH.. the AC will fly back home and land on its own.

Summary:
Until DJI issues a fix ( tested firmware 01.03.0400) , no matter what app you are using (DJI or Litchi) If you are going to fly when the sun is low on the horizon and your RTH path will be into the sun, plan ahead.
Either
1- be prepared to take manual control and bring it back home manually ( flip to sport mode)
2- or disable 'RTH Obstacle check" in the advance settings of the Visual Navigation Settings
Attached is a picture of what the Mavic was seeing.

 

[Jenee]

this has not been my experience nor the experience of others.. see Litchi locked me out, crashed!

If anyone wants to duplicate the conditions to see this behavior, here are the steps.
Perform this test when the Sun is low on the horizon , 2 hours before sunset or less will do.
Steps
1- Set "RTH Obstacle Check" on.
2- Set a reasonable Return-to-Home Altitude above any obstacles that would be in the flight path (45M is what I had)
3- Set Max Flight Altitude to a distance higher than the RTH Altitude ( 200M is good for this test) not I have seen Mavic ignor this limit and climb all the way to 500M ( 1640ft) the hard altitude limit they have programed in, so be sure you have a full charge if you are going to test this.
3-Set the home location
4-Fly the Mavic above your RTH Altitude, Fly East from your position 100ft or so, in my case it was 450ft.. and 150ft high
5- hit RTH.

Observations: as soon as I hit RTH the AC will turn around, and if the sun is low on the horizon it might fly forward for a few ft, but then if fill flash obstacle on the console and began to climb, the controller will cycle between obstacle and Going Home, but basically it was climbing vertically and not moving back to home.

I did this test 6 times, 3 times with RTH Obstacle check set, 3 times with it off. All 3 times with RTH Obstacle set performed the same.. Climbed well above the RTH Altitude. The 3 times with RTH Obstacle Off, AC rose to the predefined RTH Altitude and returned home.

I also tested Flying west so return was not into the sun, in this case the controller never flashed Obstacle and the AC came home at the RTH altitude.
I also tested this in the morning with the morning sun on the horizon.. same behavior.

I should probably advise those that want to test this how to get the AC home if you test this..
Simply go into Sport mode and fly it home.. or cancel RTH, go into the advanced settings under visual navigation settings in the DJI Go app and Turn off "RTH Obstacle Check" , then go back and hit RTH.. the AC will fly back home and land on its own.

Summary:
Until DJI issues a fix ( tested firmware 01.03.0400) , no matter what app you are using (DJI or Litchi) If you are going to fly when the sun is low on the horizon and your RTH path will be into the sun, plan ahead.
Either
1- be prepared to take manual control and bring it back home manually ( flip to sport mode)
2- or disable 'RTH Obstacle check" in the advance settings of the Visual Navigation Settings
Attached is a picture of what the Mavic was seeing.

OK, I might give this a go as I find the OA annoying sometimes. I fly in the open with just very few obstacles near me so they aren't an issue. The irritation to me is that I get the OA even when there is no sun in the camera (the sun is above the camera), but the Mavic is facing the direction of the sun. I never had an issue at all under the previous firmware.

 

[Andart]

It might be doing other calculations while making the two movement attempts that illuminate some objects like trees and flat buildings and then turn off forward sensors and return. I'm thinking to try this with a building and see if it makes a decision to gain hight to avoid .
I don't think that the technology would be to hard so that the mavic when sencing an object go's through an algorithm to work out what it might be , for instance the sensors do have a slight deviation to sides and uo and down and the first impact with sensors and then the second two attempts could probably discard a building and also maybe a tree , then come to a decision that it's a sun flare.
All sounds good to me and will be able to have some great testing .

Sent from my SM-G935F using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[Egika]

The irritation to me is that I get the OA even when there is no sun in the camera (the sun is above the camera), but the Mavic is facing the direction of the sun.

That is not irritating at all, since the main camera is not used for obstacle detection.
It's the stereo cameras on the front which do it and these cannot be moved.

 

[MavicMikeGA]

this has not been my experience nor the experience of others.. see Litchi locked me out, crashed!

If anyone wants to duplicate the conditions to see this behavior, here are the steps.
Perform this test when the Sun is low on the horizon , 2 hours before sunset or less will do.
Steps
1- Set "RTH Obstacle Check" on.
2- Set a reasonable Return-to-Home Altitude above any obstacles that would be in the flight path (45M is what I had)
3- Set Max Flight Altitude to a distance higher than the RTH Altitude ( 200M is good for this test) not I have seen Mavic ignor this limit and climb all the way to 500M ( 1640ft) the hard altitude limit they have programed in, so be sure you have a full charge if you are going to test this.
3-Set the home location
4-Fly the Mavic above your RTH Altitude, Fly East from your position 100ft or so, in my case it was 450ft.. and 150ft high
5- hit RTH.

Observations: as soon as I hit RTH the AC will turn around, and if the sun is low on the horizon it might fly forward for a few ft, but then if fill flash obstacle on the console and began to climb, the controller will cycle between obstacle and Going Home, but basically it was climbing vertically and not moving back to home.

I did this test 6 times, 3 times with RTH Obstacle check set, 3 times with it off. All 3 times with RTH Obstacle set performed the same.. Climbed well above the RTH Altitude. The 3 times with RTH Obstacle Off, AC rose to the predefined RTH Altitude and returned home.

I also tested Flying west so return was not into the sun, in this case the controller never flashed Obstacle and the AC came home at the RTH altitude.
I also tested this in the morning with the morning sun on the horizon.. same behavior.

I should probably advise those that want to test this how to get the AC home if you test this..
Simply go into Sport mode and fly it home.. or cancel RTH, go into the advanced settings under visual navigation settings in the DJI Go app and Turn off "RTH Obstacle Check" , then go back and hit RTH.. the AC will fly back home and land on its own.

Summary:
Until DJI issues a fix ( tested firmware 01.03.0400) , no matter what app you are using (DJI or Litchi) If you are going to fly when the sun is low on the horizon and your RTH path will be into the sun, plan ahead.
Either
1- be prepared to take manual control and bring it back home manually ( flip to sport mode)
2- or disable 'RTH Obstacle check" in the advance settings of the Visual Navigation Settings
Attached is a picture of what the Mavic was seeing.

What you described has happen to me before and it makes total sense because the Sun is a big "obstacle" as are headlights of oncoming cars, high-powered street lights, or just a hand-held flashlight. I'm not sure what you expect the Mavic to do in these situations but when I had issues with RTH or just flying into the Sun, I just yaw 180 degrees and fly the orange line on the DJI app home. Pretty simple fix.

My original post was and still is a hat tip for the intelligence built into the Mavic but it may not work in all cases. Maybe my Mavic acted differently because I was already near the home point or maybe it just made the correct decision the first time and then landed. I can only say that it worked and it did it without my input.

Tesla puts a lot of intelligence into their cars but people still find a way to crash them.

 

[Kilrah]

Based on prior reports I'm nearly certain there's no "intelligence" involved there but you just got lucky that the glare or whatever was preventing it from going forward just disappeared due to the angle changing slightly on the 3rd try.

 

[MavicMikeGA]

As an engineer, luck really has no measurable value to me. However, observation is valuable but not infallible. I'm going to run a few tests to see if I can get it to repeat what happened. I'm not claiming that the Mavic is genus or self-aware but it does have better navigation and driving skills than most of the people driving on the I-285 loop in Atlanta. Truth.

 

[GreatScott]

Indeed sir,.

As an engineer, luck really has no measurable value to me. However, observation is valuable but not infallible. I'm going to run a few tests to see if I can get it to repeat what happened. I'm not claiming that the Mavic is genus or self-aware but it does have better navigation and driving skills than most of the people driving on the I-285 loop in Atlanta. Truth.

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Indeed it does sir!

 

[AyeYo]

As an engineer, luck really has no measurable value to me. However, observation is valuable but not infallible. I'm going to run a few tests to see if I can get it to repeat what happened. I'm not claiming that the Mavic is genus or self-aware but it does have better navigation and driving skills than most of the people driving on the I-285 loop in Atlanta. Truth.

This.

The Mavic does not deactivate OA for RTH failure and if it does, that's incredibly stupid. Based on many prior tests and user experiences, OA needs to be turned off prior to RTH with a low angle sun or nothing but bad things happen.