Hi! Maybe this is already supported, but I’m wondering if it’s possible, during the creation of a plan, to leverage the information from a shapefile to execute different commands? For example, I love the grid functionality and use it all the time. In conjunction with that, is there anything available that will, for example, set a servo output to a specific PWM value based on the color of the region it’s currently flying in? I think this could be very useful for activating location-based events like accelerating the imagery shutter during certain parts of a mission, pointing the camera to a certain location based on where the UAV is at in the mission, modulating light output according to a colored shapefile created from a previous mission, maybe even changing or adding in additional sensors or greater resolution (perhaps higher or lower flight) during observation of certain parts of a crop. Any of this already supported?
@PhatMatt,
It depends on the topic of your post and on how many members are interested in it and want to help.
3DR has laid off all of the ArduPilot and GCS Developers so I do not know how much assistance will be coming your way.
Regards,
TCIII GM
Thanks for the response Michael! One use-case that has actually already has $millions (or billions if you include precision ag in general) already invested into it in a professional capacity is something like DJI’s agras MG-1. It’s quite commonplace in precision agriculture to create “prescriptions” based on NDVI images converted to shapefiles, which act as inputs into the program that controls spraying patterns or intensities, or seed-application rates, etc… As far as I can tell, Mission Planner doesn’t currently support an easy way to create variable reactions or events premised on inputs in the form of a shapefile or any other type of mechanism - be it light patterning, seeding, spray applications, or anything else that could be done with the ability to interpret shapefiles as an overlay during mission planning. In my mind, actually being able to DO something based on aerial imagery observations is the natural next step and creating or modifying events in mission planner based on prior observations seems a good entry-point for the DIYer. I assume DJI already uses something quite similar to this to control application rates in their MG-1 since it’s been a common practice with ground-based machinery for over a decade.
Phat: your great idea looks more usefull that you mention, imagine a pikhawk doing that installed on a fertilizer or a sprayer?? ; I try to open shp and sat imagery some time ago but without success but I’m not have much pc knowledge, in Diy drones forum you have step by step info; ask SEARCH for help; but it’s only to see the shp, not to do any action as you propose; I hope that if this is possible many people going to be interested about this in Agriculture world.
Now shp is working very easy and intuitive, thank’s Michael
Go to flight plan-right button- polygon-from shp and that’s all : ) .Be shure to stay using the same coordinate system.
Hi Michael! Sorry for the super delayed response…I’m thinking it would just be something that could issue “do set servo” commands at mission creation and set the PWM to a value that correlates somehow to the shade of the region defined in the SHP file. I created a sample SHP that might work for testing, but when I try to upload it, it says shp files aren’t allowed… How can I send it to you?
I’m not actually positive since I didn’t create the shapefile myself (don’t have the software)…I don’t do much GIS stuff, but I think it’s WGS84 (assuming it’s defined)? Here’s a link to a zip that contains the other files that were created alongside the .shp…I don’t see a .prj file though if that’s needed.
It is not in WGS84 … You just only need 3 files if you know projection : shp, shx and dbf. If you have prj it is good but not necessary !
The coordinates doesn’t seems to indicate something in any projection
; I try to open shp and sat imagery some time ago but without success but I’m not have much pc knowledge, in Diy drones forum you have step by step info; ask SEARCH for help; but it’s only to see the shp, not to do any action as you propose; I hope that if this is possible many people going to be interested about this in Agriculture world.