@tridge Are there any videos (or videos with logs) of anyone doing a truly perfect auto-land with flare and soft touchdown? I haven’t seen any. I’ve looked and can only find autolands that “work” but there is some small bouncing or landing near parallel or 0 AoA. Nothing with a nose up descent is shown anywhere. I’m wondering if one, that’s possible or two, anyone has ever done it or at least shared publicly that it’s been done. I’ve seen one video of an expensive commercial system running arduplane that has a true perfect autoland but there is not confirmation if it was done actually autonomously or if changes to the code were made. Lots of attempts out there, no one shows it actually working spot on. Would love to hear thoughts or see something from anyone.
The softer I can get is here :
Which system are you talking about ? Delair UX11 or ebee ? None of two are running ardupilot …
Check out the last 30% of this video:
Thanks. That’s ok but the second landing has the guy on the sticks so that’s not completely clear if autonomous or not. The fact that I can’t find anything is honestly somewhat troubling given this is probably the trickiest part of the flight process and the autopilot should be able to compensate for how much wind is present. That’s a huge issue and concern. Nosing up in wind is essentially a climb so it needs to be done less.
I’m always amazed at how little visual evidence there is of good landings. Actual good ones. Soft, nose up flares. No bouncing. Etc. it should be the standard. Not the exception.
The second landing there was the only non-autonomous landing. I think you are expecting a bit much of these aircraft.
There’s a few reasons I say that… Landing nose-up is ideal, but it takes a LOT of finite control and “feel” for small aircraft to land that way. You have to be at the perfect, and I mean perfect speed to be able to go nose up without increasing altitude/floating or stalling and falling.
In addition, ground-effect changes flight dynamics during touchdown. Do you expect an autopilot to compensate for that?
If you expect a smooth touchdown, you have to have a lot of runway. With manned aircraft at only 2x the speed, you will expect several hundred feet for a very smooth touchdown. If you want to be more accurate, then the landings are often harder and not as smooth. In the UAV world, accuracy is often more important than perfectly smooth. Ardupilot’s code is designed for accuracy landings, not smooth ones.
In addition, nosing up is totally independent from wind. Wind changes significantly close to the ground, so there are so many factors that can’t totally be controlled. Wind shear is dangerous. The wing loading on UAV’s makes them very susceptible to air currents. This isn’t a stabilized 737 after all.
I saw only one landing nose up … otherwise good landing !
Off topic what is the second white gps present in video ?
maybe the code has improved since this thread was created - this is arduplane 4.1…