Obstacle Avoidance and RTH

[uilleann]

I have had Parrot Bebops since they came out. I sold my last one a few months ago because they were too easy to lose or crash. Other than that..... they were a blast. This new MAVIC looks really good but I have a questions.

One day I was flying my Bebop along the ocean shore on a gps flight plan. I lost wifi, as expected after 800m or so, but it continued on its merry way to about 2km away and then happily returned.

I think my "wifi common sense" got confused and on my next flight I flew the bebop, at about 50m above the ocean, around a large (100m high) Rock that was about 300m from the shore out in the ocean. As soon as it went on the "dark" side of the rock, I lost wifi and all control. This was not a gps flight plan. So for the bebop it will just stop and hover and wait for a wifi reconnect. But there was no angle I could get towards the rock where my Bebop would pick up the wifi.

I am only guessing here but the bebop is programed to go up 100 m and then RTH when the battery gets to a low level. It probably did the 100m rise and then made a beeline towards me and smacked right into this rock formation. Never to be seen again. I even called the coast guard and they said its too dangerous..... no one goes out there.

So here is the question.

What would the Mavic do in this situation? I am assuming that the obstacle avoidance would keep it from smacking into the rock but would it have the sense to vector around or above the obstacle. OR would it just hover till it the battery died?

 

[Mad_Angler1]

Object Avoidance works in RTH when it's turned on in the menu In P-GPS mode, however it's unknown if it's enabled in RTH when in Sport mode, this is because DJI have stated that if it's turned off it won't work in RTH but we don't fully know if that stands in Sport mode as both OE and VPS are disabled.

What it does if its enabled is stop and go higher until it cleared the object.

See this

 

[Derf]

That's just freaking awesome [emoji106]


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

 

[Dirty Bird]

If RC signal is lost during manual flight the Mavic will stop, wait 3 seconds for contact to resume, then initiate Return To Home. It will climb to the RTH altitude the user has set, return to the point of launch, & ultimately land itself without further intervention. Obstacle Avoidance will have it climb above or fly around obstacles encountered along the return path.

I have had Parrot Bebops since they came out. I sold my last one a few months ago because they were too easy to lose or crash. Other than that..... they were a blast. This new MAVIC looks really good but I have a questions.

One day I was flying my Bebop along the ocean shore on a gps flight plan. I lost wifi, as expected after 800m or so, but it continued on its merry way to about 2km away and then happily returned.

I think my "wifi common sense" got confused and on my next flight I flew the bebop, at about 50m above the ocean, around a large (100m high) Rock that was about 300m from the shore out in the ocean. As soon as it went on the "dark" side of the rock, I lost wifi and all control. This was not a gps flight plan. So for the bebop it will just stop and hover and wait for a wifi reconnect. But there was no angle I could get towards the rock where my Bebop would pick up the wifi.

I am only guessing here but the bebop is programed to go up 100 m and then RTH when the battery gets to a low level. It probably did the 100m rise and then made a beeline towards me and smacked right into this rock formation. Never to be seen again. I even called the coast guard and they said its too dangerous..... no one goes out there.

So here is the question.

What would the Mavic do in this situation? I am assuming that the obstacle avoidance would keep it from smacking into the rock but would it have the sense to vector around or above the obstacle. OR would it just hover till it the battery died?

 

[Statici]

Object Avoidance works in RTH when it's turned on in the menu In P-GPS mode, however it's unknown if it's enabled in RTH when in Sport mode, this is because DJI have stated that if it's turned off it won't work in RTH but we don't fully know if that stands in Sport mode as both OE and VPS are disabled.

What it does if its enabled is stop and go higher until it cleared the object.

See this

Hmm, so this is cool, but is there enough object avoidance above the drone to say, avoid hitting tree branches on the way up?

I do a lot of flying in trees with my P3S (yeah, I know, I've already ran into a few branches!) and it would be fantastic if, when I lose signal, it would try to explore horizontally for a (vertical) free path.

 

[The Editor]

Hmm, so this is cool, but is there enough object avoidance above the drone to say, avoid hitting tree branches on the way up?

I do a lot of flying in trees with my P3S (yeah, I know, I've already ran into a few branches!) and it would be fantastic if, when I lose signal, it would try to explore horizontally for a (vertical) free path.

There is zero obstacle avoidance above the aircraft. It only has OA in front of the Mavic with a sensing distance as specified in the spec and a horizontal field of sensing of 60 degrees.

 

[Statici]

Oh lawdie, really? Jeez. I even figured that part of the purpose of the avoidance was to sense objects as it say, did orbits around the target.