The AUTOLAND mode here refers to landing at the home point (or a rally point). Is it possible to set such a rally point during the flight at which an automatic landing then takes place?
An example would be if the battery capacity runs out during the flight and you want to land for safety’s sake. But not somewhere without control, but at a suitable location that has been flown over beforehand and marked via a rally point.
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3.New AUTOLAND_OPTIONS param that has option to set landing direction upon arm if plane is using a compass rather than using initial ground course upon takeoff. More options planned in the future, eg options for climb before turn option mode entry in case a FS happens during takeoff or when flying low
if you can plan a rally point, then you can setup multiple DO_LAND_STARTS landing at those locations, no need for AUTOLAND which is primarily intended for protection at unplanned locations.
each rally point could need its own approach setup params or approach direction…again, preplanning is required whereas now you just setup a generic approach once and if hazardous for the params at a particular new location, don’t use AUTOLAND or, better yet, use the arm option to set approach direction if you have a compass being used.
I’m also interested by having autoland mode actionable with RCx_OPTION
Would it also be possible to have the landing final approach based on wind direction instead of being fixed by an angle? I mean, as AP is knowing the wind direction at any time, it would be interesting to use it automatically as the opposite direction of landing and calculate approach based on it. Of course it assume landing in an open field as you can’t know by advance the wind direction at the time of landing.
I have PRs submitted to:
-add as an aux function
-add as a fence breach action
-add as a battery failsafe (minimum climb get disabled on batt failsafe)
Sounds great! I’ll definitely check this out when it shows in latest. Thanks for coding this up. It’s dead of winter where I’m at but come spring I plan of using this on my AeroScout.
Runway selection requires knowing where both ends of the runway are unless you accept midfield landings and takeoffs. IIRC there is a Lua script for runway selection.
Using AP wind estimate is not viable in my opinion…wind direction at ground level is frequently not the same as that when cruising at 1-200ft…wind direction routinely changes with altitude…and AP wind estimates are not made until turns are made, so using it on a takeoff failsafe is not practical…and landing direction is not “fixed by an angle” (unless using the arming capture compass based option), its based on your actual takeoff direction over ground…that may not be directly into the wind, but it should align with the runway, if not, which is what you want…
You are right and it is not as simple as I (badly) explained it. In general, I find AP very good in wind estimation and the way it takes it into account for automatic landing (I have sometimes seen it land my plane in extreme wind conditions in a way that I could not have matched). This is why I find it a shame not to take it into account to manage the choice of a landing approach. Of course this would only be valid for certain types of landings such as landing on an open field. This could also be the case for the choice among several predefined approaches. For example, in the case of a runway, AP could automatically choose the best landing direction thanks to two predefined approaches according to a direction as opposite as possible to the wind. Finally it could be a choice in case of failsafe to limit the landing length by landing facing the wind.
I know that development is a long and difficult task, so I thank you for everything you are already doing. Therefore, if this request is too complicated or long to implement, or if you just find it inappropriate please ignore it.
Thanks