Looking to add these useful and safety features in my pixhawk cube orange and herelink drone

1

Hi,

Can anybody help me fulfill my drone requirements ? @Alvin @MadRC @philip @kellyschrock

Note :- In herelink, I will be using solex tx as my default app. This will be my all time preferred app in
Herelink.

These are my requirements :-

  1. Obstacle avoidance with all directions including front, back, left, right, up, down. I actually need very accurate obstacle avoidance with long distance sensing. I mean that the sensor which will sense the object should be enough to detect the obstacles from a bit far as it will be safe for my drone. Here I also need that when I RTL my drone, now see suppose I am flying in a curve or zig-zag path, in a normal RTL, it will be returning as same manner in zig-zag or curve as I flown earlier but here my requirement is that when I issue RTL in my drone, then the drone should return to home by clearing the unnecessary curves and zig-zag. Here I mean that mapping. The drone should clear the unnecessary paths and return back home with avoiding the obstacles such as buildings, tress, poles, etc. Even when my transmitter goes out of my range, then also the drone should return back by RTL with clearing the unnecessary paths and with obstacle avoidance activated as if my battery will be low and if the drone issues regular RTL without clearing the unnecessary paths then the drone might crash will RTL because no enough fuel in the battery. The obstacle avoidance should also work with manual mode in my herelink and also in other modes too. Like in AUTO, Guided, etc. It should also work when I map something in my herelink solex tx to complete a mission and in my mapping there is some building involved in the path of the map, so it should avoid that thing too by recognising the building and planning itself the route and complete the mission safely. Here I was talking about the Auto mode. The obstacle avoidance should also work in Guided mode and other mode such as manual, AltHold, Loiter, etc. I need that the drone is protected from all the directions. Not only the front, back, left, right but also the up and down of the quadcopter should be protected.

  2. Terrain following

Another note :- I will be flying a bit aggressively with the drone so even if I give 100% command to the drone to move forward, still it should not move forward if there is a obstacle. These should apply in all directions. Even If I take off and above my drone if there is a obstacle, it should not move up even if I give command in my transmitter to throttle up.

  1. In solex, will there be any update so that we can get good visuals like we get in DJI drones. Lile if the object is closer, so we can get some beep from the herelink and also the distance from which my drone is to the object. Such as in DJI you can hear the beeps if you approach closer to the objects and also see that the object is 0.5metre, 1metre, 2metre away from the drone? Any idea @kellyschrock Are the developers working on this as not only me but many asked for this feature in solex to be implemented. Today only I was reading one post in this forum to get visual details from lidar in the solex tx herelink. Again, this will be a very nice feature. I would request to add this feature in solex tx app. @kellyschrock

  2. Follow me and any object. I need that in solex tx we will have a option to select a particular area
    on the screen of the solex tx app to follow a specific object. Without even requiring the transmitter
    to keep near us, suppose I want to follow a car so in the follow mode, which ever thing I select, it
    should follow it. Suppose I select a red carin solex tx to follow so it should follow that. I will be
    using a sony camera with a seagull #REC 2 so with the help of the camera it should be able to do
    that within solex tx. If not in this above way, then is there any wat to at least keep the transmitter
    with us and get follow me at initial stage in solex tx? @kellyschrock

some suggestions I need from you :-

Here my another thinking about using 360 degree lidar sensor is that, it turns using motor so will it be fast enough to capture all the 360 degree directions. I mean as I mentioned above that I need accuracy so if I use the 360 degree lidar that there may be a possibility that I will be flying in a higher speed and there will be a obstacle, then will the 360 degree lidar be able to measure that ? Because that is not constantly monitoring the articular degree like the front direction of the drone or back, left or right directions so will there be a possibility that there will be a delay in scanning all the directions using 360 degree lidar ? Should I look after teraranger or any other lidar so it will be constantly measuring all the directions with stable without moving ? The benefit may be that there will be no mistake that the obstacle is not detected and the drone might crash whereas may be in 360 degree lidar, the possibility are that they are not constant or fixes, they move in all directions so they might get wrong readings or may be due to higher speed in my drone, then could not sense a obstacle due to the high speed ? Am I correct ? Is my thinking correct ? @Alvin @philip @MadRC @kellyschrock Even in terabee official website it is mentioned that with zero moving parts, we can get more robustness. So it means that 360 degree lidar will not be actually perfect and robust?
image

Can we compare a 360 degree lidar with a terabee tower with 8 lidars which will be stable ? Which will give more robustness and reliability ? 360 degree lidar or a fixed lidar such as terabee tower, etc lidars ?

Another question is that will terraranger be able to sense the obstacles in all directions. I mean that will there be any blind spots ? I am talking about this teraranger model specifically :- Link :- https://www.terabee.com/shop/lidar-tof-multi-directional-arrays/teraranger-tower-evo/
( specifically with the 8 sensors )
If there will be blind spots in terabee, will it affect my drone obstacle avoidance in any way ?

I actually read the docs from ardupilot but still a bit confused as in the docs they say that obstacle avoidance is for front, back, left and right but my questions which what about the down and up direction of the drone ? Please help me with it. I need obstacle avoidance, terrain following and herelink solex tx warning if obstacle comes near including beeps,etc. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thank you,
Regards,
Biswajeet Prusty

2

Hi,

Can anybody help me fulfill my drone requirements ? @Alvin @MadRC @philip @kellyschrock

Note :- In herelink, I will be using solex tx as my default app. This will be my all time preferred app in
Herelink.

These are my requirements :-

  1. Obstacle avoidance with all directions including front, back, left, right, up, down. I actually need very accurate obstacle avoidance with long distance sensing. I mean that the sensor which will sense the object should be enough to detect the obstacles from a bit far as it will be safe for my drone. Here I also need that when I RTL my drone, now see suppose I am flying in a curve or zig-zag path, in a normal RTL, it will be returning as same manner in zig-zag or curve as I flown earlier but here my requirement is that when I issue RTL in my drone, then the drone should return to home by clearing the unnecessary curves and zig-zag. Here I mean that mapping. The drone should clear the unnecessary paths and return back home with avoiding the obstacles such as buildings, tress, poles, etc. Even when my transmitter goes out of my range, then also the drone should return back by RTL with clearing the unnecessary paths and with obstacle avoidance activated as if my battery will be low and if the drone issues regular RTL without clearing the unnecessary paths then the drone might crash will RTL because no enough fuel in the battery. The obstacle avoidance should also work with manual mode in my herelink and also in other modes too. Like in AUTO, Guided, etc. It should also work when I map something in my herelink solex tx to complete a mission and in my mapping there is some building involved in the path of the map, so it should avoid that thing too by recognising the building and planning itself the route and complete the mission safely. Here I was talking about the Auto mode. The obstacle avoidance should also work in Guided mode and other mode such as manual, AltHold, Loiter, etc. I need that the drone is protected from all the directions. Not only the front, back, left, right but also the up and down of the quadcopter should be protected.

  2. Terrain following

Another note :- I will be flying a bit aggressively with the drone so even if I give 100% command to the drone to move forward, still it should not move forward if there is a obstacle. These should apply in all directions. Even If I take off and above my drone if there is a obstacle, it should not move up even if I give command in my transmitter to throttle up.

  1. In solex, will there be any update so that we can get good visuals like we get in DJI drones. Lile if the object is closer, so we can get some beep from the herelink and also the distance from which my drone is to the object. Such as in DJI you can hear the beeps if you approach closer to the objects and also see that the object is 0.5metre, 1metre, 2metre away from the drone? Any idea @kellyschrock Are the developers working on this as not only me but many asked for this feature in solex to be implemented. Today only I was reading one post in this forum to get visual details from lidar in the solex tx herelink. Again, this will be a very nice feature. I would request to add this feature in solex tx app. @kellyschrock

  2. Follow me and any object. I need that in solex tx we will have a option to select a particular area
    on the screen of the solex tx app to follow a specific object. Without even requiring the transmitter
    to keep near us, suppose I want to follow a car so in the follow mode, which ever thing I select, it
    should follow it. Suppose I select a red carin solex tx to follow so it should follow that. I will be
    using a sony camera with a seagull #REC 2 so with the help of the camera it should be able to do
    that within solex tx. If not in this above way, then is there any wat to at least keep the transmitter
    with us and get follow me at initial stage in solex tx? @kellyschrock

some suggestions I need from you :-

Here my another thinking about using 360 degree lidar sensor is that, it turns using motor so will it be fast enough to capture all the 360 degree directions. I mean as I mentioned above that I need accuracy so if I use the 360 degree lidar that there may be a possibility that I will be flying in a higher speed and there will be a obstacle, then will the 360 degree lidar be able to measure that ? Because that is not constantly monitoring the articular degree like the front direction of the drone or back, left or right directions so will there be a possibility that there will be a delay in scanning all the directions using 360 degree lidar ? Should I look after teraranger or any other lidar so it will be constantly measuring all the directions with stable without moving ? The benefit may be that there will be no mistake that the obstacle is not detected and the drone might crash whereas may be in 360 degree lidar, the possibility are that they are not constant or fixes, they move in all directions so they might get wrong readings or may be due to higher speed in my drone, then could not sense a obstacle due to the high speed ? Am I correct ? Is my thinking correct ? @Alvin @philip @MadRC @kellyschrock Even in terabee official website it is mentioned that with zero moving parts, we can get more robustness. So it means that 360 degree lidar will not be actually perfect and robust?
image

Can we compare a 360 degree lidar with a terabee tower with 8 lidars which will be stable ? Which will give more robustness and reliability ? 360 degree lidar or a fixed lidar such as terabee tower, etc lidars ?

Another question is that will terraranger be able to sense the obstacles in all directions. I mean that will there be any blind spots ? I am talking about this teraranger model specifically :- Link :- https://www.terabee.com/shop/lidar-tof-multi-directional-arrays/teraranger-tower-evo/
( specifically with the 8 sensors )
If there will be blind spots in terabee, will it affect my drone obstacle avoidance in any way ?

I actually read the docs from ardupilot but still a bit confused as in the docs they say that obstacle avoidance is for front, back, left and right but my questions which what about the down and up direction of the drone ? Please help me with it. I need obstacle avoidance, terrain following and herelink solex tx warning if obstacle comes near including beeps,etc. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thank you,
Regards,
Biswajeet Prusty

3

Hi,

Can anybody help me fulfill my drone requirements ? @Alvin @MadRC @philip @kellyschrock

Note :- In herelink, I will be using solex tx as my default app. This will be my all time preferred app in
Herelink.

These are my requirements :-

  1. Obstacle avoidance with all directions including front, back, left, right, up, down. I actually need very accurate obstacle avoidance with long distance sensing. I mean that the sensor which will sense the object should be enough to detect the obstacles from a bit far as it will be safe for my drone. Here I also need that when I RTL my drone, now see suppose I am flying in a curve or zig-zag path, in a normal RTL, it will be returning as same manner in zig-zag or curve as I flown earlier but here my requirement is that when I issue RTL in my drone, then the drone should return to home by clearing the unnecessary curves and zig-zag. Here I mean that mapping. The drone should clear the unnecessary paths and return back home with avoiding the obstacles such as buildings, tress, poles, etc. Even when my transmitter goes out of my range, then also the drone should return back by RTL with clearing the unnecessary paths and with obstacle avoidance activated as if my battery will be low and if the drone issues regular RTL without clearing the unnecessary paths then the drone might crash will RTL because no enough fuel in the battery. The obstacle avoidance should also work with manual mode in my herelink and also in other modes too. Like in AUTO, Guided, etc. It should also work when I map something in my herelink solex tx to complete a mission and in my mapping there is some building involved in the path of the map, so it should avoid that thing too by recognising the building and planning itself the route and complete the mission safely. Here I was talking about the Auto mode. The obstacle avoidance should also work in Guided mode and other mode such as manual, AltHold, Loiter, etc. I need that the drone is protected from all the directions. Not only the front, back, left, right but also the up and down of the quadcopter should be protected.

  2. Terrain following

Another note :- I will be flying a bit aggressively with the drone so even if I give 100% command to the drone to move forward, still it should not move forward if there is a obstacle. These should apply in all directions. Even If I take off and above my drone if there is a obstacle, it should not move up even if I give command in my transmitter to throttle up.

  1. In solex, will there be any update so that we can get good visuals like we get in DJI drones. Lile if the object is closer, so we can get some beep from the herelink and also the distance from which my drone is to the object. Such as in DJI you can hear the beeps if you approach closer to the objects and also see that the object is 0.5metre, 1metre, 2metre away from the drone? Any idea @kellyschrock Are the developers working on this as not only me but many asked for this feature in solex to be implemented. Today only I was reading one post in this forum to get visual details from lidar in the solex tx herelink. Again, this will be a very nice feature. I would request to add this feature in solex tx app. @kellyschrock

  2. Follow me and any object. I need that in solex tx we will have a option to select a particular area
    on the screen of the solex tx app to follow a specific object. Without even requiring the transmitter
    to keep near us, suppose I want to follow a car so in the follow mode, which ever thing I select, it
    should follow it. Suppose I select a red carin solex tx to follow so it should follow that. I will be
    using a sony camera with a seagull #REC 2 so with the help of the camera it should be able to do
    that within solex tx. If not in this above way, then is there any wat to at least keep the transmitter
    with us and get follow me at initial stage in solex tx? @kellyschrock

some suggestions I need from you :-

Here my another thinking about using 360 degree lidar sensor is that, it turns using motor so will it be fast enough to capture all the 360 degree directions. I mean as I mentioned above that I need accuracy so if I use the 360 degree lidar that there may be a possibility that I will be flying in a higher speed and there will be a obstacle, then will the 360 degree lidar be able to measure that ? Because that is not constantly monitoring the articular degree like the front direction of the drone or back, left or right directions so will there be a possibility that there will be a delay in scanning all the directions using 360 degree lidar ? Should I look after teraranger or any other lidar so it will be constantly measuring all the directions with stable without moving ? The benefit may be that there will be no mistake that the obstacle is not detected and the drone might crash whereas may be in 360 degree lidar, the possibility are that they are not constant or fixes, they move in all directions so they might get wrong readings or may be due to higher speed in my drone, then could not sense a obstacle due to the high speed ? Am I correct ? Is my thinking correct ? @Alvin @philip @MadRC @kellyschrock Even in terabee official website it is mentioned that with zero moving parts, we can get more robustness. So it means that 360 degree lidar will not be actually perfect and robust?
image

Can we compare a 360 degree lidar with a terabee tower with 8 lidars which will be stable ? Which will give more robustness and reliability ? 360 degree lidar or a fixed lidar such as terabee tower, etc lidars ?

Another question is that will terraranger be able to sense the obstacles in all directions. I mean that will there be any blind spots ? I am talking about this teraranger model specifically :- Link :- https://www.terabee.com/shop/lidar-tof-multi-directional-arrays/teraranger-tower-evo/
( specifically with the 8 sensors )
If there will be blind spots in terabee, will it affect my drone obstacle avoidance in any way ?

I actually read the docs from ardupilot but still a bit confused as in the docs they say that obstacle avoidance is for front, back, left and right but my questions which what about the down and up direction of the drone ? Please help me with it. I need obstacle avoidance, terrain following and herelink solex tx warning if obstacle comes near including beeps,etc. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thank you,

Regards,
Biswajeet Prusty

4

Your questions are mostly answered in the ardupilot wiki

For fixed direction obstacle avoidance,
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-object-avoidance-landing-page.html

RTL will skip those zigzag paths. It will raise to the preset altitude and fly straight to its launch location. You probably used smart RTL, which RTL, but traces path to get home
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/flight-modes.html

Obstacle avoidance should work in various modes. However, this is more like a software than hardware compatibility. You shall ask on ardupilot forum if you want to know more.

I need that the drone is protected from all the directions

Buy 360 lidars.
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-rangefinder-landingpage.html#omnidirectional-proximity-rangefinders

Even If I take off and above my drone if there is a obstacle, it should not move up even if I give command in my transmitter to throttle up.

Read the ardupilot wiki. There are demonstration videos.

suppose I want to follow a car so in the follow mode, which ever thing I select, it
should follow it

You have stepped into the software development region. I think this requires advanced algorithm to achieve “object following by camera”.

5

Thanks @Alvin Can I use a teraranger tower for 360 degree lidar and one question that is :-

Can we compare a 360 degree lidar with a terabee tower with 8 lidars which will be stable ? Which will give more robustness and reliability ? 360 degree lidar or a fixed lidar such as terabee tower, etc lidars ?

Another question is that will terraranger be able to sense the obstacles in all directions. I mean that will there be any blind spots ? I am talking about this teraranger model specifically :- Link :- https://www.terabee.com/shop/lidar-tof-multi-directional-arrays/teraranger-tower-evo/
( specifically with the 8 sensors )
If there will be blind spots in terabee, will it affect my drone obstacle avoidance in any way ?

6

Hi,

I am thinking to use the terabee tower evo with ( 8 sensors ).

Here I was going through this wiki :- Object Avoidance with Bendy Ruler — Copter documentation

So here while reading the above wiki, I had some queries.

  1. Here in this parameter OA_BR_TYPE , If I set this parameter to the value 2 , then it will
    searches for path only in four directions: Straight towards the destination, vertically up, vertically
    down and backwards.
    These are the questions about the above point discussed

(i) So here if the drone is equipped with a 360 degree terabee sensor ( terabee tower evo with 8
sensors) and there are also up and down sensors equipped. Here by up and down sensor, I mean
that the sensor are not only equipped at the front, back, left and right but also in the up and down
of the drone. So if I set the OA _BR_TYPE to the value 2 , then suppose there is a obstacle and
the drone rises above, and in that case suppose there is a obstacle above too, so what will
happen ? Will it avoid the above obstacle or hit the above obstacle even tough it is equipped with
the up and down sensors ? Is there any way to avoid that too or not possible?

(ii) If I set the OA_BR_TYPE to the value 2 , and there is a building in front of the drone path, so how
will it avoid. Will it rise above the building untill it senses that there is no building in front of the
drone or it will fly sideways and slide untill it comes to the end boundary of the building ? I mean
that, will that time, the drone will react as it reacts in OA _BR_TYPE to the value 1 , I mean that
will it avoid horizontally or vertically ? Is OA _BR_TYPE to the value 2 , is a mix of
OA_BR_TYPE to the value 1 and OA _BR_TYPE to the value 2. Which is more good ? Value 1
or Value 2 ?

(iii) Difference between the OA_BR_TYPE 1 and OA_BR_TYPE 2

I already read the docs for which I attached above in this post but not detailed enough to understand it.

  1. Is terabee evo tower supports the following :-
    (i) Bendy ruler ( Yes or No )
    (ii) Dijkstra’s ( Yes or No ) As I think that Dijkstra’s support only camera based vision?Am I correct?
    (iii) Terrain following ( Yes or no )
    (iv) Path planning for drone ( Yes or No )

  2. What is the difference between Dijkstra’s and smart RTL ? Are they both same or different ? If
    they are different, then how ? As I know that Dijkstra’s also shortens the paths and smart RTL
    also does the same. So any difference ?

  3. Can you give any wiki link which shows the use of up and down sensors too to be used as
    obstacle avoidance ? I mean that including front, back, left, right I need that the top and bottom
    sensors too should be used for obstacle avoidance ? What will happen if there is an obstacle
    above the drone so therefore I need that the top and bottom sensors also to be implemented along
    with all other avoidance sensors but I cannot get any wiki link.

  4. How can I get terrain following using additionally 9th lidar terabee 60m sensor ? Already 8
    sensors used in front, back, left and right of the drone obstacle avoidance.

  5. Can I use a tenth obstacle avoidance sensor to get top obstacle avoidance ? I mean, if there will
    be a obstacle above the drone, then the terabee 60m can be used to avoid that also ?

  6. Can I mix Dijkstra’s and bendyruler with manual and other modes also ? Here I mean that always I
    will not give mission to the drones and give path but I will also fly the drone myself. Sometimes manually or in modes like Loiter, Altitude hold, etc. So my requirement is that suppose if I setup the Dijkstra’s and bendyruler, then that will of course only work in Auto, guided and RTL. But what about manual or mode flying by the pilot ? I need that when I give mission to my drone and select auto mode or in RTL, then the bendy ruler with Dijkstra’s should work and when flying manually in althold, loiter or in no mode (manually) by ourself, then what to do ? What should I setup ?

  7. While flying manually by ourselves in manual, loiter, althold mode, etc I want that the drone should not stop if the object or obstacle is there. It should react to it. I mean if there will be a approaching obstacle, then it should also react. It should not only stop. Even tough the obstacle is not moving, the drone should react. Is there any this type of avoidance available ? Link please?

  8. Can we also add more than 8 sensors in terabee for pixhawk cube orange ? As the hub supports maximum 8 sensors ? What about ninth sensor ?

  9. Can the same sensor ( terabee 9th sensor used for obstacle avoidance along with terrain
    following) ? Or I need another terabee ?

  10. What is the difference between TeraRanger Evo 60m and Evo 600Hz sensors ? Please explain in
    detail.

  11. What is the range of TeraRanger Evo 600Hz ?

  12. How many Hz is the Teraranger Evo 60m ?

  13. After getting the Teraranger Evo 60m, then can it be used as 600Hz ? Can it be converted ? I
    mean that 60m and 600hz are totally different ?

Please help me @Alvin @philip @MadRC

7

will there be any blind spots ?

You probably didn’t read the teraranger tower specification carefully. The link you shared already answered your question

image
image1662×209 24.2 KB

If there will be blind spots in terabee, will it affect my drone obstacle avoidance in any way ?

You can’t avoid what you can’t see.

What is the difference between Dijkstra’s and smart RTL

You are comparing 2 totally different thing. Dijkstra is an algorithm and smart RTL is a flight mode. There are nothing comparable between them.

For the rest of your questions, I don’t know because Teraranger is terabee’s product. We are not the manufacturer so you should ask them instead of us. I have never used this product before, so I can’t share any tips with you either.

What you are asking are the Ardupilot functionality, not about the Cubepilot hardware compatibility. You should ask your questions on Ardupilot forum where the developers have more understanding on how different sensors are integrated into the system.

8

Good grief @Biswajeet.

READ!!!

9

For obstacle sensing and avoiding you need total 3 sensor, 1 360 degree lidar sensor and remaining two being the conventional sensors. You can mount the 360 degree sensor on top of your drone but remember there should not be any part of drone which crosses the path with your sensor such as gps stand and other accessories. Just place the sensor on a elevated surface(you can use a gps stand) this sensor will detect the obstacle in horizontal direction. only on x-axis. you can put the remaining two sensor facing upward and downward respectively.
Also as you said you need the sensing range to be accurate and sufficient enough so that your drone can come to a halt, well the range of the sensor completely depends upon the top speed of your drone and maximum thrust you have because for bring your drone to halt you need to deacclerate with alot more force which obiously requires more thrust. Remember higher the speed of the drone higher the amount of thrust required to bring your drone to halt.
However if you have kept the speed of your drone much higher without calculating the stopping power and etc you will notice that the as soon you leave the pitch stick of your transmitter your drone will loose some altitude before coming to halt
For RTL
you can enable smart RTL which means whenever your drone goes into the failsafe mode it will follow the same trajectory path (by tracing down your last recorded gps coordinates) to return to your location but remember enabling Smart RTL as an option for battery failsafe is not a good idea as your drone will take much longer to get back to the location from where it took off. I suggest you trying this option for your next flight as it only requires few minor changes in the failsafe configuration. Best of luck