Hello guys, considering the similarity between the AR Pro Wing and the Ebee X fixed-wing mapping plane, I was wondering how feasible it would be to convert the AR Wing Pro into a mapping plane. To achieve this, I would install a Matek F405-WTE flight controller, an Adti camera, a PPK module with its antenna, a speed sensor, and a rangefinder (the latter two for configuring Autoland in Ardupilot). These additional components would add approximately 250-300 grams. Do you think it would be feasible? What modifications should I make regarding the motor, propellers, and ESC? Thank you.
Can you build it? Sure. For an AR pro, I wouldn’t even worry about the airspeed and rang finder because with some good tuning it will land just fine without them. (at least my AR 900 does)
But other things to consider depend on what area you live and plan to work in? And if you want to do commercial BVLOS flights with the drone. If you’re in Europe or North America and you need to meet technical compliance for a SORA application, then you’re in for a ton of work. It’s doable, but you’ll spend a lot of hours doing it. Out of the box the Ebee is good for flight over people and in some countries that approval is time consuming and costly to get. So the money you saved on purchase price will be long gone in the hours you’ll spend getting it to work.
However, if none of that matters to you, then yeah, build it up and go for it. It’s a great platform.
Where I live, there wouldn’t be an issue with the current UAV laws for UAVs of this nature. Additionally, it would be used in remote areas away from the population, so there wouldn’t be a problem either. Ideally, achieving a flight time of at least 1 hour would be great. I believe it would be possible with a 10000mAh Li-ion battery, but I haven’t found much information about the autonomy of the AR Wing Pro with a battery of that capacity.
Get a subscription to ecalc.ch. It will let you play with the variables to get the performance you’re looking for. The subscription is worth it if it saves you trialing a couple sets of props.