The FlytBase Precision Landing Module allows for precise drone landings on ArUco markers tag located on docking stations or landing pads with centimetre-level accuracy.
Precision Landing is a feature that enables drones to land on the landing pad with high precision. This feature is useful when the drone needs to land in the docking station without any collision or damage to the drone while landing over the tag.
To perform a precision landing, the drone has to be above the landing tag, to trigger visual guidance for the drone to land in the docking station safely and precisely. This minimizes the need for manual intervention for the seamless landing of the drone in the Docking Station.
Once the drone is added and is online on the dashboard.
Click on Settings from the right corner to configure Precision Landing.
Select the drone from the drop-down menu at the top left corner of the settings tab and click on the Precision Landing tab should be chosen.
Before performing Precision Landing with the drone, it is important to ensure that certain settings have been properly configured:
Landing Tags: It is a combination of ArUco marker landing tags arranged in a particular format to guide the drone to the docking station while landing.
The default precision landing mode is set to Vision, which uses ArUco markers for landing. But the operator check before configuring further settings.
Click on Add to configure a Precision Landing tag for the selected drone.
The operator can choose from the following set of tag altitudes from which the drone should trigger a precision landing.
As the drone closes the distance between itself and the tag, the bigger tags exceed the Field of View (FOV) of the drone's camera. So a pattern with tags of different sizes is used, to cope with the minimum and maximum distance of detection.
Once the height is set, click on Next.
In the What to expect tab, read the points carefully mentioned & proceed ahead by clicking on next.
Landing Threshold: This setting determines the altitude at which the drone will position itself over the target landing area before executing the DJI Land command. It allows for precise control over the altitude at which the drone begins its final descent for landing. The drone doesn't perform any recovery after reaching the threshold.
Guided Final Approach: This setting determines whether the drone will be guided all the way to the ground during the precision landing process, or whether it will only be guided to the landing threshold height before executing the DJI Land command. Enabling this setting will cause the drone to continue following the vision guidance all the way to the ground, allowing for a more precise landing. Disabling this setting will cause the drone to stop following vision guidance at the landing threshold height and execute the DJI Land command at the set Landing Threshold.
Precision Landing Failsafe
This failsafe action is triggered when the drone isn't able to perform PL during the set time interval due to either being unable to detect the tag while hovering over the docking station or being unable to maintain its position over the tag till the landing threshold altitude, making it perform precision landing failsafe action.
To trigger Precision Landing manually
Triggering Vision-Precision Landing as pre-set final action
To trigger vision- Precision Landing during missions, create the mission and configure the finish actions as:
Return To Docking Station(RTDS)
Setting finish action as RTDS will bring the drone back on top of the Docking Stations Location once the mission is completed. At the docking station location, the Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone will align itself with the ArUco marker tag to land precisely on the tag inside the Docking Station enclosure.
Return To Home (RTH) with Precision Landing (RTH-PL)
Setting finish action as RTH-PL will bring the drone back to its home location once the mission is completed. At the home location, Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone will align itself with the ArUco marker tag to land precisely at the home location.
Land with Precision Landing(Land-PL)
Setting the finish action as Land - Precision Land will initiate precision landing at the drone's current location. Users need to ensure that there is a landing pad below the drone's current location to use this finish action. Vision - Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone will align itself with the ArUco marker tag to land precisely.
Aborting the Precision Landing Action and Taking Manual Control
To regain manual control of the drone, click on the Joypad button and use the on-screen joypad, keyboard mouse, or joystick controls to fly the drone. Alternatively, the operator can switch the drone's RC mode from P to S for taking control of the drone using the physical RC controller.
Even when using the FlytBase RTK-PL feature for precision landing, the operator is still required to configure the vision PL settings.
The default precision landing mode is set to Vision, which uses ArUco markers for landing. To switch to RTK-based precision landing, use the drop-down menu in the Precision Landing section of the Settings menu and select RTK as the landing mode.
When using RTK positioning, the drone will not take off unless an RTK fix is obtained, regardless of the precision landing mode.
Configuring RTK-PL Settings
Landing Threshold: This setting determines the altitude at which the drone will position itself over the target landing area before executing the DJI Land command. It allows for precise control over the altitude at which the drone begins its final descent for landing. The drone doesn't perform any recovery after reaching the threshold.
RTK PL trigger height: This setting allows the operator to set the altitude at which the drone will begin to perform an RTK-based precision landing. It allows for a minimum height to be specified at which RTK-based precision landing will be triggered, with options of 5, 10, or 15 meters. This helps ensure that the drone is at a safe altitude before initiating the precision landing process.
Guided Final Approach: This setting determines whether the drone will be guided all the way to the ground during the precision landing process, or whether it will only be guided to the landing threshold height before executing the DJI Land command. Enabling this setting will cause the drone to continue following the RTK guidance all the way to the ground, allowing for a more precise landing. Disabling this setting will cause the drone to stop following RTK guidance at the landing threshold height and execute the DJI Land command at the set Landing Threshold.
Precision Landing Failsafe: This setting instructs the drone to perform the set failsafe action if it is unable to perform the RTK-PL-based landing due to issues with the RTK fix. Operators can navigate to the Failsafes section to set specific actions for their drones.
Expected Behavior during RTK-Precision Landing
FlytBase only supports the D-RTK base station for now.
Successful Precision Landing
Before starting a mission, the RTK base station must be turned on and connected to the drone.
Once the RTK pole is connected, the drone's RTK positioning solution must be in "FIXED" or "FIXED_POINT" mode, indicating that it has a stable and accurate position.
Before the drone takes off, the RTK's fixed position (GPS coordinates) and the drone's heading (orientation) are recorded by FlytBase.
Precision Landing command is initiated only when the drone is within a 20m radius of the docking station, and it utilizes real-time data from the RTK base station's fixed position to guide the drone for precise landing.
The RTK-PL algorithm uses real-time kinematics and heading to maneuver the drone and land on the drone docking station with centimetre-level accuracy.
If the RTK positioning solution is not in "FIXED" or "FIXED_POINT" mode, the drone will not be able to take off.
When does the drone perform RTK- Precision Landing?
Before initiating an RTK-based precision landing, ensure that the "Precision Landing mode" is set to "RTK" in the "Settings" menu. Failure to do so may result in the drone attempting to perform a vision-based precision landing, which may not be successful if the required conditions are not met.
The Drone can be configured to perform RTK- Precision Landing in case of the following mission scenarios :
Triggering RTK-Precision Landing manually from the FlytBase dashboard
The drone must be within 20 meters of the take-off position before activating the RTK-PL. Furthermore, the RTK data received from the RTK pole must be healthy, or RTK health must be OK. If the aforementioned conditions are met, the drone is permitted to perform RTK-PL.
Once RTK-PL is triggered, FlytBase's Precision Landing (RTK-GPS Based) algorithm uses the recorded GPS coordinates and heading and real-time kinematics to manoeuvre the drone and land on the drone dock with centimetre-level accuracy.
The Precision Landing command is rejected if it is triggered more than 20 meters from the takeoff location.
Triggering RTK-Precision Landing as pre-set final action
To trigger RTK- Precision Landing during missions, create the mission and configure the finish actions as:
Return To Docking Station(RTDS)
Setting finish action as RTDS will bring the drone back on top of the Docking Stations Location once the mission is completed. At dock's the location, the RTK- Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone will align, approaches, and lands precisely inside the Docking Station enclosure.
Return To Home (RTH) with Precision Landing (RTH-PL)
Setting finish action as RTH-PL will bring the drone back to its home location once the mission is completed. At the home location, the RTK-Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone will align, approach, and lands precisely inside the Docking Station enclosure.
Land with Precision Landing(Land-PL)
Setting the finish action as Land (Precision Land) will initiate precision landing at the drone's current location. Users need to ensure that there is a landing pad below the drone's current location to use this finish action. RTK- Precision Landing will be initiated and the drone aligns, approaches, and lands precisely on the target area.
Aborting the RTK- Precision Landing Action and Taking Manual Control
To regainmanual control of the drone, click on the Joypad button and use the on-screen joypad, keyboard mouse, or joystick controls to fly the drone. Alternatively, the operator can switch the drone's RC mode from P to S for taking control of the drone using the physical RC controller.
For more information on common issues with DJI drones, please refer to the frequently Reported Issues here.
This feature an add-on and if you don't have it on your dashboard, that means it is not in your current package, please feel free to contact support@flytbase.com if you find this feature useful and would like to add it.
When the drone is above the docking station or in the range for the drone to detect the precision landing tag trigger precision landing from the main dashboard manually by clicking theicon located at the right bottom side of the dashboard.
To abort the drone's current action and regain manual control, click on the abort button.
When the drone is in the air, the RTK- Precision Landing can be triggered by the dashboard clicking the RTK-PL buttonfrom the control panel from the right-bottom corner.
To abort the drone's current action and regain manual control, click on the abort button.
