I am currently scoping the use of a pixhawk as the driver for a manned aerial photogrammetry system. I have some spent time reading through ardupilot and pixhawk documentation and am familiar with Mission Planner. I’m hoping some one might be able to answer a couple of specific queries that i haven’t found the answer to yet. I have the feeling the functionality I am looking for is possible, I just wanted to make sure there aren’t any obvious road blocks before I dive too deep.
Can i set up a mission (waypoints with camera triggers) that can be run without the pixhawk actually controlling a vehicle? The aircraft will manually fly along the flight lines so it just needs to trigger when it gets to each waypoint.
Is it possible to set a distance threshold (preferably horizontal and vertical) for which the waypoint/camera will be triggered?
Yes you can do exactly that. Mount flight controller within the aircraft make sure you have a gps connected and a laptop so you can monitor the flight lines and make sure you are flying them correctly. Its pretty much a poor mans trigger. Although I would make sure you are following all applicable law and regulations. I once saw a write up of a fella using a pixhawk to only trigger a camera on his ultralight while he flew, so very similar to what you’d like to accomplish. Although I cannot find the document anymore.
you can setup a trigger distance within MP for horizontal but not vertical, normally when using a UAS you can set the altitude you want to fly at and have terrain following enabled will make sure you are triggering each photo at the right altitude.
I suspect not many have answered because the fact you mentioned manned aircraft which in most countries is tightly controlled on what you can be hanging off of, out of or installing in your aircraft while still keeping them certified. I will mention that ardu prohibits the actual control of any vehicle regardless of type using ardupilot software. But as you have said this is only to be used to trigger a camera and will not in anyway be hooked into flight control.
I don’t think the use case will be frowned upon since there is no violation of the code of conduct. It’s just extremely unique and probably hasn’t garnered much attention as a result. I think it should work just fine in concept, but I can’t offer much advice on how to proceed.
I am not sure if this is even technically possible using pixhawk sitting inside a manned air craft.
Even if you correctly mark the home location (plane and pixhawk GPS) and try to enable waypoints, your plane location and pixhawk GPS will never be in exact same location. Pixhawk will get all confused trying to get to its first way point before it can even begin the trigger process and it will not happen as pixhawk is just an accessory inside the plane.
I would look for an alternative commercial solution for manned aircraft. I think there many out there.