Initiating auto landing via Mavlink command / Qground

Ground Control Software QGroundControl
1

Hello:

I am flying a fixed wing plane using Qground without an RC controller to Pixhawk compatible A/P with Adrupilot for firmware.

Is it possible to trigger an auto landing from the Android tablet?

Thanks!

Bret C

2

Not sure what it takes to get ArduPilot fixed wing to auto-land. You’d have to ask firmware folks. QGC can change to any flight mode like RTL for example.

3

Don - thank you for your message.

Is the mode - RTL = “Return to Land” or is it “Return to Launch” (Circle over launch)

Thanks
Bret C

4

It returns back to the home position

5

Don - Thank you for your post.

Is there a better location to make posts like this? It is strange the lack of response I get in my postings on this site.

Thanks
Bret C

6

This spot is fine for ArudPilot based questions. It’s just me so you if I’m not around things take longer.

1 Like
7

Hi @BretC

RTL means Return To Launch.

Landing is a complicated thing and is highly dependent on your aircraft type. Best way to land is to create a landing mission (NAV_WAYPOINT up high then NAV_LAND at zero-ish altitude) and fly in AUTO mode to land automatically.

If you set param RTL_AUTOLAND to 1 or 2 then when switching mode to RTL will trigger a search for DO_LAND_START mission item and, if found, will switch your mission index to that point and switch your flight mode to AUTO. That DO_LAND_START mission item is just a marker, in a normal mission it just gets skipped over. That allows you to have a pre-scripted landing that can get triggered anytime.

8

MagicRuB

Thank you for your information.

We do auto landings frequently. Qground does a great job of this, but the landing is done at the end of the flight. Our drone is a flying wing. It does NOT use a handheld RC controller so we are limited by sending signals from Qground/tablet. For this reason I am trying to figure out how to trigger (skip to) the DO_LAND_START from the tablet using Qground.

Some commercial apps we have used has a button on the app that does the skip to DO_LAND_START feature. We want to do this from Qground as well.

Any insights or work arounds would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Bret C

9

Just set up the vehicle as Tom describes and then do an RTL from QGC. RTL is on the left toolstrip. The firmware will automatically handle this by skipping to DO_LAND_START.

10

Also I can’t quite remember if this works on ArduPilot: But when you are in the landing sequence a Land Abort slider should pop up in QGC. Then you can confirm this to abort the landing and head back up to try again.

11

@donlakeflyer Glad to hear there’s an abort button during landing! Bonus points for having it disappear when not landing :slight_smile:

12

OK Thank you for the insights. I will test and report back.
Thanks!

Bret C