Hi I would like to create a device to collect waypoints for rover!
The rover is having gps and RTK connection, I’m aiming for centimeter level accuracy with the help of RTK, Instead of manually moving the rover to collect the way-points or creating waypoint from mission-planner, I would like to have a handheld device, this handheld device will be took to each point and press one button to collect the data and use these point-data as the waypoint for the rover(I’m more focused on position/relative accuracy of rover than geographical accuracy )
does any one made something like this? or having any insights or helpful information to build such a device…please share …
I do not know if anyone has created something like this, but I can do a little brainstorming on how I would try to create such a device. I would use another FC, an arduino to simulate a RC receiver, a button connected to the arduino to activate the “learn waypoint” function, whatever you need for the RTK functionality and a powerbank/lipo to power it all. Print/build/buy a nice enclosure and put everything on a tripod/stick. After recording all the waypoints, connect the device to MP, load the mission, edit it if needed and save it to the rover. There might also be a way to do it with an Raspberry Pi running a simulated vehicle with an actual GPS connected to it.
All of this is of course without any guarantee for it to actually work.
One potential insight on this topic that we have had is that there are advantages to using the rover to record waypoints. Our rover is a lawn mower. Having the operator “record” the perimeter with the mower-rover forces the operator to only construct perimeter waypoints that the mower can safely mow. We found that setting up waypoints (using mission planner, for example, or using a manual waypoint recorder) sometimes made it too tempting to create waypoint paths that look good on paper but which are dangerous for the mower-rover to actually mow in reality. One main reason for this is that the mower extends about 1.2m forward from the GPS antenna. While a waypoint (say) 1 meter from a tree or a fence might look like a good idea on paper, sometimes when the rover actually executes it it doesn’t look so good. Hence we decided to use the mower-rover to record all perimeter and obstacle boundaries. Of course your application may have different geometries…
If there is any off the shelf options available to work with here+ RTK and ardurover, i would like to try, otherwise I want to build something from the scratch…
take whatever board you want, load ardurover on it, do the setup normally like a rover but without wheels and just your RTK GNSS. Plug a wifi telem so you can connect you cellphone.
Set a button or rc switch function to record waypoint. And move manually your board to record the waypoints.
Next you can make a case or anything to handle it easily.
I will be using RTK to increase the accuracy, and will be fixing the location in around 30 minutes, in this case i wont be having cm level position accuracy on the RTK position, but i can still get cm level accuracy on my rover (it will be relative accuracy not geographical accuracy) .
so here my handheld device should have a communication with my mission planner-RTK-pixhawk to mark the relative position behalf of rover !
