Landing / recovering UAV at speed on a ship

[Meta4]

Have you considered the possible affects of thousands of tons (?) of metal could have on your compass etc? I know you've tried it while stationary, but not something I would consider!

Since he's already been flying from the ship, he probably has that under control.
ps .. you mean steel, not metal.
Only iron or steel would have an effect on the compass, other metals have no effect.

 

[JAW]

Watch this video for at least inspiration.

It can be done.

Man, just watch the video....a vintage Phantom and a dude with heavy foul weather gear which he needed when he back-hand caught the Phantom.

 

[NegativeOne]

Ahoy. Capt of a ship with an aluminium Helideck (22.20m wide). I have safely launched and recovered my Mavic Pro at 12kn without issue. Main consideration is wind speed and direction. I had wind following vessel approx 10kn. So in reality wind speed experienced was 0-2kn. However if 15 knot head wind and 15kn speed... you will be lucky not to lose your drone [emoji6]. Also you need to turn off landing protection, otherwise drone will stop/hover to land while ship continues to move fwd regardless. Check your compass before take off. Be ready to use Sport mode if drone falling behind. Do not set a home point or your drone will head back to where the ship was when you took off. I always try and land long before battery is 50%. Proximity to Radars is also a hazard. Good luck [emoji6]

 

[Mike4884]

Negativeone hit the nail on the head u have to go to vps setting and turn off "landing protection" u can also catch it and hold left stick down and drone will not fight u because landing protection is off. It is sketchy going that fast but I guess if I was to do it I was just fly along the side of the ship come in right above me ....and start to land while simultaneously flying it . I would start to lower the Drone and right when I got to my hand I would grab it and power down with left stick. I know it all sounds good but this is probably what I would do LOL but yeah for sure definitely turn off Landing protection! I keep that setting off all the time because most of the time I hand catch and it was a nuissance....anyways lands soft as a feather and doesn't fight back

 

[Brad de Leon]

Best bet is to practice hand catch in back of pickup truck. Start at slow speeds and increase as you gain confidence

 

[kilomikebravo]

Best bet is to practice hand catch in back of pickup truck

Brad: What a GREAT idea! So simple although I doubt it would have ever crossed my mind to practice that way but it's perfect.

 

[vedkontho]

Hey i joined in pretty late i guess. I own a mavic air, been flying it for one year now, and I also work as an engineer on oil tankers ( very large ocean going crude carriers) for almost 15 yrs now.

Getting a drone onboard and flying it has its own challenges, landing is the least of them.

Many times u go to ports where u have to declare an UAV to customs, and if the port is an oil terminal the customs create a lot of problems. They won't look at the drone, they wud look at ur nationality, and which port u have reached. Say for example if u r an American and go to a Russian port in the black sea, I wud say u hide ur drone in the bond locker. I am guessing u know all this since u r the captain.

Since u didn't mention the ship type, it cud be varied. I work on oil tankers and there is a clear risk of flying a drone on a tanker.

On a bulk carrier its safer, just get ur Cadet to wear gloves ( and hand catch it) from the top of the hatches, and get a main engine turbo charger air filter from the engine room and lay it down and use it as a buffer just in case the cadet misses the catch.

U stay and fly from the bridge wing. Don't go very far at first. Launch and land from the top of the hatch covers.

If urs is a container vessel or a tanker , I wud say ditch the plan.

All the best.

 

[Little Red Craft]

The US military is experimenting with a sort of catch net they drive the drone into to catch it on a moving vehicle. You might try something like that. In my view, the real problem is focus, or lack thereof. You can fly but not catch at the same time. If you are standing still (gps-still), then you can stop flying and do the catch. But both at once ... not a chance. I'd try the big net notion, drive the drone right into the net.

Do let us know how it goes ... I for one am very interested.

Also, the idea of trying slower speeds first and working up is another good idea. Wind turbulence and unexpected directions will increase with the square (I think) of your ship velocity.

Cheers jb

 

[NIDGE]

Good day,

I'm a captain on a 110 meters (360 feet) long ship. The vessel is 20.70 meters ( 68 feet ) wide and has a nice open deck the size of an aircraft carrier.

Im using my drone often making spectaculair footage at sea around the world. But this is always done with the vessel stopped. Now Im studying the possibility of shooting my vessel in full motion. She does 15 knots which is about 28 km/h at full speed. Im experienced enough in drone flying to know it's possible. Especially on such a large vessel. But I have a few unanswered questions which I cant solve by reading other threads.

1/ If I match the speed of my vessels 15 knots and come in for a landing the drone is tilted forward. Im afraid the propellors might start scraping the deck or cause problems when landing. Any experience on this matter?
2/ If I stop pushing forward on the controls the drone probably goes in hover mode keeping GPS position. ( Vision systems all off ). This is probably a big problem for safe landing. So are there people who have experience landing on a relatively fast moving object.
3/ Handcatching the drone...(Using leather welders gloves ). Can i power down the motors whilst keeping forward speed on the right stick? I can imagine if I only power down, the drone will try to hold GPS position and will try to escape from the catching hand for a few seconds. The drone is very powerfull so this might be a risk. So what happens during these few seconds you power off the motors whil holding it in a hand AND moving at 15 knots....
4/ What happens if the Software fails during flight. Go4 app or Litchi. Do I still have the controls or will disaster strike?

Anyone who has good experience with this very particular technique of landing a drone on a relatively fast moving object please share your tips and tricks. I really like to be well prepared before I risk ditching a huge investment into the ocean.

Brgds,
Dennis

To stop the props hitting the deck you could fit leg extensions, and when landing take 2 km off the speed of the vessel you are landing on. Work's for me.[emoji926]

 

[NIDGE]

Good day,

I'm a captain on a 110 meters (360 feet) long ship. The vessel is 20.70 meters ( 68 feet ) wide and has a nice open deck the size of an aircraft carrier.

Im using my drone often making spectaculair footage at sea around the world. But this is always done with the vessel stopped. Now Im studying the possibility of shooting my vessel in full motion. She does 15 knots which is about 28 km/h at full speed. Im experienced enough in drone flying to know it's possible. Especially on such a large vessel. But I have a few unanswered questions which I cant solve by reading other threads.

1/ If I match the speed of my vessels 15 knots and come in for a landing the drone is tilted forward. Im afraid the propellors might start scraping the deck or cause problems when landing. Any experience on this matter?
2/ If I stop pushing forward on the controls the drone probably goes in hover mode keeping GPS position. ( Vision systems all off ). This is probably a big problem for safe landing. So are there people who have experience landing on a relatively fast moving object.
3/ Handcatching the drone...(Using leather welders gloves ). Can i power down the motors whilst keeping forward speed on the right stick? I can imagine if I only power down, the drone will try to hold GPS position and will try to escape from the catching hand for a few seconds. The drone is very powerfull so this might be a risk. So what happens during these few seconds you power off the motors whil holding it in a hand AND moving at 15 knots....
4/ What happens if the Software fails during flight. Go4 app or Litchi. Do I still have the controls or will disaster strike?

Anyone who has good experience with this very particular technique of landing a drone on a relatively fast moving object please share your tips and tricks. I really like to be well prepared before I risk ditching a huge investment into the ocean.

Brgds,
Dennis

I agree with bret8883 it's a really hard and risky but with your experience and the size of the deck it's possible and should be tried at a lower speed to start with

 

[Nurmdad]

A ship that size must have a dingy or other smaller boat, why not launch and land from that?

 

[WebJ]

Good day,

I'm a captain on a 110 meters (360 feet) long ship. The vessel is 20.70 meters ( 68 feet ) wide and has a nice open deck the size of an aircraft carrier.

Im using my drone often making spectaculair footage at sea around the world. But this is always done with the vessel stopped. Now Im studying the possibility of shooting my vessel in full motion. She does 15 knots which is about 28 km/h at full speed. Im experienced enough in drone flying to know it's possible. Especially on such a large vessel. But I have a few unanswered questions which I cant solve by reading other threads.

1/ If I match the speed of my vessels 15 knots and come in for a landing the drone is tilted forward. Im afraid the propellors might start scraping the deck or cause problems when landing. Any experience on this matter?
2/ If I stop pushing forward on the controls the drone probably goes in hover mode keeping GPS position. ( Vision systems all off ). This is probably a big problem for safe landing. So are there people who have experience landing on a relatively fast moving object.
3/ Handcatching the drone...(Using leather welders gloves ). Can i power down the motors whilst keeping forward speed on the right stick? I can imagine if I only power down, the drone will try to hold GPS position and will try to escape from the catching hand for a few seconds. The drone is very powerfull so this might be a risk. So what happens during these few seconds you power off the motors whil holding it in a hand AND moving at 15 knots....
4/ What happens if the Software fails during flight. Go4 app or Litchi. Do I still have the controls or will disaster strike?

Anyone who has good experience with this very particular technique of landing a drone on a relatively fast moving object please share your tips and tricks. I really like to be well prepared before I risk ditching a huge investment into the ocean.

Brgds,
Dennis

I’m looking to do the same thing off a sailboat. I saw a video online showing a technique for bringing the drone onboard. They tied a fishing line (5 or 6 ft.) around the drone and attached a weight to the end of the line. Then when the drone was brought back to the boat, the crewman reached up and grabbed the line and hauled it in.

 

[musicjeremy]

There are two main issues that others have noted: takeoff/landing, and mitigating the risk of losing the drone.

For takeoff and landing, I recommend hand launching and hand catching. That way there is no chance the drone will impact the deck. You can hold on to a mavic that is trying to get away. As long as you grip it firmly with gloves to protect against prop contact you will be fine. Just rehearse how you will do it - I definitely recommend a partner to help you with this.

For risk of loss - as others have noted the best thing would be a dynamic home point but apparently that option doesn't exist for RTH anymore. Plus the home point will be out of date instantaneously in any event. So there are two scenarios that we can consider:

1. The drone temporarily loses contact with the remote due to interference near the drone (usually happens when the drone is far away), or just maxing out the range.

In this case, you need the drone to autonomously come back towards you so you can re-establish control. Before you take off, set your RTH point to an intercept course with your ship. The drone WILL overshoot you, but the idea is that you'll be able to re-establish control and cancel RTH. Importantly, you need to re-establish control before the drone reaches the home point and auto-lands in the sea!

2. The remote fails, so you cannot control the drone at all even if it were in range.

Assuming you've set RTH per the above, you are going to need to get your ship underneath the drone's home point so that you can intercept it and have it land right on the ship. Obviously that is going to be really difficult and the chances of the drone surviving this failure scenario is very very low.

In summary, setting RTH for an intercept course with the ship's course should cause the drone to fly back towards you, allowing you to re-establish control once the interference has cleared. It won't protect you against complete control failures where the aircraft has to auto-land without further inputs.

If DJI had the option to RTH and then hover (vs RTH and then land), that would be the best option as you might be able to stop the ship underneath the hovering drone. But either way, I think scenario #2 is pretty much guaranteed to result in the loss of the drone. Scenario #1 seems risky but manageable.

My philosophy about my drone is that I have already gotten my money's worth having shot hundreds of images that I could not have gotten any other way. So I am willing to risk the drone (not others around me of course) to continue to get these shots.

This is all of course based on the premise that altering your ship's course would have undesirable consequences or would be simply impractical.

 

[Lit Gimbal]

Good day,

I'm a captain on a 110 meters (360 feet) long ship. The vessel is 20.70 meters ( 68 feet ) wide and has a nice open deck the size of an aircraft carrier.

Im using my drone often making spectaculair footage at sea around the world. But this is always done with the vessel stopped. Now Im studying the possibility of shooting my vessel in full motion. She does 15 knots which is about 28 km/h at full speed. Im experienced enough in drone flying to know it's possible. Especially on such a large vessel. But I have a few unanswered questions which I cant solve by reading other threads.

1/ If I match the speed of my vessels 15 knots and come in for a landing the drone is tilted forward. Im afraid the propellors might start scraping the deck or cause problems when landing. Any experience on this matter?
2/ If I stop pushing forward on the controls the drone probably goes in hover mode keeping GPS position. ( Vision systems all off ). This is probably a big problem for safe landing. So are there people who have experience landing on a relatively fast moving object.
3/ Handcatching the drone...(Using leather welders gloves ). Can i power down the motors whilst keeping forward speed on the right stick? I can imagine if I only power down, the drone will try to hold GPS position and will try to escape from the catching hand for a few seconds. The drone is very powerfull so this might be a risk. So what happens during these few seconds you power off the motors whil holding it in a hand AND moving at 15 knots....
4/ What happens if the Software fails during flight. Go4 app or Litchi. Do I still have the controls or will disaster strike?

Anyone who has good experience with this very particular technique of landing a drone on a relatively fast moving object please share your tips and tricks. I really like to be well prepared before I risk ditching a huge investment into the ocean.

Brgds,
Dennis

Bro, don't turn off the motors! I see people on YouTube landing their drones like crap. I don't use a landing pad, nor flat ground, but my sole hand and it's a breeze to take off and land. Only thing you have to do is turn off "landing protection" in the settings menu. This way it will not scan for potential objects when landing, -- it might think your hand is not suitable. When you do that, just navigate the drone towards you and go down confidently knowing that it will not resist your hand. After it touches you, push the left stick (if you're using mode 2) all the way down like you are landing it on flat ground, -- it will turn off the motors by itself, just hold firmly and don't think of turning it upside down since it damages the gimbal. When taking off, just use the take off button on the screen, but make sure it's as low as possible to surface. Another thing is to position it with the rear facing you and your hand stretched out from face when taking off. With landing, just be firm and confident knowing that when you turn off the landing protection, it will not resist.

 

[Mavrick77]

Good day,

I'm a captain on a 110 meters (360 feet) long ship. The vessel is 20.70 meters ( 68 feet ) wide and has a nice open deck the size of an aircraft carrier.

Im using my drone often making spectaculair footage at sea around the world. But this is always done with the vessel stopped. Now Im studying the possibility of shooting my vessel in full motion. She does 15 knots which is about 28 km/h at full speed. Im experienced enough in drone flying to know it's possible. Especially on such a large vessel. But I have a few unanswered questions which I cant solve by reading other threads.

1/ If I match the speed of my vessels 15 knots and come in for a landing the drone is tilted forward. Im afraid the propellors might start scraping the deck or cause problems when landing. Any experience on this matter?
2/ If I stop pushing forward on the controls the drone probably goes in hover mode keeping GPS position. ( Vision systems all off ). This is probably a big problem for safe landing. So are there people who have experience landing on a relatively fast moving object.
3/ Handcatching the drone...(Using leather welders gloves ). Can i power down the motors whilst keeping forward speed on the right stick? I can imagine if I only power down, the drone will try to hold GPS position and will try to escape from the catching hand for a few seconds. The drone is very powerfull so this might be a risk. So what happens during these few seconds you power off the motors whil holding it in a hand AND moving at 15 knots....
4/ What happens if the Software fails during flight. Go4 app or Litchi. Do I still have the controls or will disaster strike?

Anyone who has good experience with this very particular technique of landing a drone on a relatively fast moving object please share your tips and tricks. I really like to be well prepared before I risk ditching a huge investment into the ocean.

Brgds,
Dennis

If you’re the captain
Surely you can slow th transit of the vessel to an acceptable speed for landing .. ?
Coming from someone that has worked on May vessels .

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

You can fly but not catch at the same time.

I was thinking whilst also in command of the ship !!!
Suppose no one knows if this is a barge, a mini bulk carrier etc, and what crew may be available to pilot the ship (expect there would be a 2IC).

You'd be able to get some spectacular footage though.

With any sort of hand launching (and to some degree landing), you'd have to make sure when you take off, you are ready to fly, and try not have any obstructions immediately behind you that could come through too quickly and hit the drone as it stabilises after take off.

 

[thomashall1993]

Go for it! You only live once and you will never know until you try.

Handcatch at sea at speed

 

[Nightthunder]

I don't know the model of drone you are flying but here are some landing skids for the M2x that should make hand catching a lot easier and safer. Just grab one of the skids.

Arris Raptor2 Skid for the DJI Mavic 2 (Pre-Order FOR 04/15/19) shipment | irepairmd

 

[Fessernohair]

Okay - following up on the last post - add propeller cages and extend reach and range with a fish catching net. Reactions?

If positive, are propeller cages available for a Mavic Air? The Primary Wench and I are chartering a 38 foot sailboat in the BVI in May, and I plan to take my Mavic Air. She’s a competent helm(wo)man, so she she could steer while I retrieve at not more than 5 or 6 knots. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Okay - following up on the last post - add propeller cages and extend reach and range with a fish catching net. Reactions?

If positive, are propeller cages available for a Mavic Air?

Cages only made for MP and MPP, and there's a reason why.
They didn't sell well.
Flight time normally up to 12 minutes only, AND I found out today in another thread can only be used in tripod mode speeds !!
So out for even normal land based flying most of the time, certainly if any speed of a boat etc and any sort of wind.

Even prop guards would likely affect flight times slightly (in wind especially) but no where near s much as cage designs.