ArduCopter Community Help for Research on UAV Handling/Flying Qualities

ArduCopter
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1

I’m involved in a research project and I’m hoping to pull from the experience base of the ArduCopter community. This project involves determining maneuvers that could be used to determine the goodness of a UAV’s handling or flying qualities. I would like to learn about what kind of maneuvers these aircraft are performing operationally, such as carrying external loads, mapping, or using FPV operationally. The desire is to understand what is being asked of these aircraft to determine how to characterize what flying/handling qualities are necessary for an UAV to complete certain operational maneuvers.

My goal for this discussion is to find out from the user community what maneuvers are being conducted with multicopters and helicopters to accomplish the job at hand.

The information that I would like for each operational maneuver is
Description or video of maneuver
External pilot, internal pilot or FPV, or autonomous
What makes this maneuver difficult or easy
Was there an external observer helping you position the aircraft and how (hand signals, radio calls)
Do you have other visual aids or information helping you do the task/maneuver
What’s important regarding how the aircraft flies (i.e. smooth movement for camera shots)

For example:
Maneuver: Aerial mapping
Conducted using auto mode
Aircraft must fly precise ground tracks to within 5 meter accuracy laterally and altitude within 1 meter. While taking pictures, pitch and roll rates must be low so as to not blur pictures. Ground speed must be held within 1 m/s to ensure precise location data since pictures are being taken on a time interval.

I know there are many users out there doing great and interesting things. I would like to hear about them.

2

Been interested in using a traditional helicopter for about 4 years. Rob inspire me again to look into using a heli again for taking pictures for agriculture . For me the ability to fly in wind and long flight time is key. 700 feet and gusty wind . The ability to fly at the same height no matter what the terrain . Some land is rolling around here . Been following the build for using a traditional heli for longer flight .
(off topic ) What concern me as newbie is tuning the heli to reach my goal . Also the ability to land if i have some type of failure . Need to ability to add hardware like flytbase for (IoT) to the helicopter. Future : the ability to detect and I.D pest ( hovering height is important) and no shaking (camera with long lens ? ) .

3

Thanks for your response. So what type of aircraft do you currently use? unfortunately, the study is not looking at performance of the aircraft and how long it can stay aloft. As far as failures, the only maneuver I see that would be interesting for a helicopter would be autorotation (engine out landing). or a landing using FPV if you had to abort and couldn’t return. Have you done any of these? What is flytbase or loT?

4

https://flytbase.com/ . Skyhero spyder . IoT is internet of Things or robotics .