Question on EKF2 and Optic Flow

ArduCopter Copter 4.0
#1

Hi all,

I’m currently doing some work using SITL to predict the behaviour of a hexacopter flying outdoors using an optic flow sensor and laser rangefinder (with EK2_GPS_TYPE set to 3).

In SITL, the copter is achieving a maximum forward velocity of 0.5-2m/s, which is somewhat less than ideal. WPNAV_SPEED is set to 12.5m/s, and EK2_RNG_USE_SPEED is set to 6m/s. Is there any information available on what factors will govern the speed of a copter given these constraints? Is there a more up-to-date guide on how I should be configuring this to acheive something closer to 10-12m/s?

Thanks.

#2

I’m kind of guessing here… something to try while waiting for someone more knowledgeable to chime in- do you have a low ANGLE_MAX ? Maybe your WPNAV_ACCEL is too low for it to accelerate to speed in the given time?

Not sure if this applies to your case but there was an improvement made a week ago to support higher speed auto missions https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/18190/commits

#3

I don’t. When I re-enable GPS, the SITL copter happily navigates at the speed I want.

The issue seems to be when it’s using optic flow + LRF only.