Who's regularly relying on Lidar for challenging landings?

[wco81]

We saw the videos of the Air 3S RTH by going into a parking garage and navigating back to the Home point.

Or the Air 3S flying into not only an apartment balcony but going inside the apartment to land.

OK, I don't know if those were real or some YouTuber stunts to get views.

But I am curious if people are regularly using RTH in which instead of dropping down vertically to Home point from the RTH height, they are having their Air 3S RTH to a Home point which is covered such as an apartment or hotel balcony or maybe a home garage or a covered carport.

One advantage would be if your Home point is in a balcony of a high rise building, say the 5th floor, then your AGL is effectively greater than 400 feet, because it would be 400 feet plus however high the 5th floor is.

Another would be that the building could be in a scenic location so you'd want to fly around there. Of course drone laws of that particular location permitting flights in that area.


I'm interested in at least trying it but I don't want the OA to go wonky and either refuse to RTH to the covered Home point or crashes into a roof or a ceiling. In one of the general setup videos I watched, the guy said be prepared to change or turn off OA for certain types of shots like flying say a 1/2 foot off the ground to track something -- sounds more like those Avata videos you see. But he said even in a relatively sparsely wooded area, OA might be too sensitive even to a couple of branches even though there's like 10-20 feet of space between them.


So who regularly uses RTH to Home point which do not have a clear airspace above them?

Are you launching from those unusual Home points so that Smart RTH or whatever they call this Lidar-assisted RTH can "learn" or retrace the path when it RTH?

Like that parking garage or apartment RTH videos, presumably they launched inside and flew outside of the buildings and then climbed and RTH more or less retraces those paths?

 

[GadgetGuy]

The new "Smart RTH" will ostensibly navigate its way back to the home point by taking photos and video of the surroundings during takeoff so it can find its way back to the launch location by reversing the course upon landing, navigating safely back inside. However, like obstacle avoidance, it is a feature, not a guarantee, and you need to be ready and able to take over manual control, should it fail. It is not that complicated to manually fly out of a balcony and fly back inside. If you do not feel confident of being able to do so manually, you probably shouldn't be testing the feature, because, if it doesn’t work as you expect it, you will likely not be be able to recover, and may crash your drone.

That being said, the YT videos accurately portray its capabilities and its failures.

 

[Meta4]

One advantage would be if your Home point is in a balcony of a high rise building, say the 5th floor, then your AGL is effectively greater than 400 feet, because it would be 400 feet plus however high the 5th floor is.

No ... there's a hint in the words that AGL stand for.
That's above ground level, not above launch point height.

So who regularly uses RTH to Home point which do not have a clear airspace above them?

Hardly anyone.
The feature is mostly for DJI to show off their smart technology.

 

[a2tomm]

New thechnology is all well and good HOWEVER the new smart return to home feature is only as good as LIE-DAR works properly ,It has already failed me when it comes to POWER lines my Air 3s was near by and I was paying attention POWER lines are worse than trees I was lucky and stopped my bird before power lines got it .
Don't ever trust LIE-DAR

 

[YVRGUY]

We saw the videos of the Air 3S RTH by going into a parking garage and navigating back to the Home point.

Or the Air 3S flying into not only an apartment balcony but going inside the apartment to land.

OK, I don't know if those were real or some YouTuber stunts to get views.

But I am curious if people are regularly using RTH in which instead of dropping down vertically to Home point from the RTH height, they are having their Air 3S RTH to a Home point which is covered such as an apartment or hotel balcony or maybe a home garage or a covered carport.

One advantage would be if your Home point is in a balcony of a high rise building, say the 5th floor, then your AGL is effectively greater than 400 feet, because it would be 400 feet plus however high the 5th floor is.

Another would be that the building could be in a scenic location so you'd want to fly around there. Of course drone laws of that particular location permitting flights in that area.


I'm interested in at least trying it but I don't want the OA to go wonky and either refuse to RTH to the covered Home point or crashes into a roof or a ceiling. In one of the general setup videos I watched, the guy said be prepared to change or turn off OA for certain types of shots like flying say a 1/2 foot off the ground to track something -- sounds more like those Avata videos you see. But he said even in a relatively sparsely wooded area, OA might be too sensitive even to a couple of branches even though there's like 10-20 feet of space between them.


So who regularly uses RTH to Home point which do not have a clear airspace above them?

Are you launching from those unusual Home points so that Smart RTH or whatever they call this Lidar-assisted RTH can "learn" or retrace the path when it RTH?

Like that parking garage or apartment RTH videos, presumably they launched inside and flew outside of the buildings and then climbed and RTH more or less retraces those paths?

I use lidar regularly. I launch from my covered patio deck and RTH to the same home point. It has to dodge a couple of med and tall trees, but it has been 100 % reliable. I do stay on the controls monitoring its return just in case…you never know what can come up.

It’s interesting to watch the AIR 3S return and the maneuvering it goes through before safely landing. If the lidar fails, then DJI can view my flight log and explain why it failed. Otherwise, it does work.

As far as power lines are involved? Nobody trusts them. Scope out all power lines before flight…know their locations. Not even aircraft pilots trust them. Either they’re visible by large orange balls hanging from them or the large towers they’re suspended from are a give away to their height and alignment.

Lidar works…but you are still keeping on top of the remote control again, just in case.