What maximum speed for autonomous navigation between waypoints?

Hello,

Would Arducopter support a speed of about 200 mph (320 km/h or about 90 m/s) in autonomous flight mode, in a straight line, between two waypoints ?
Has it been tried ? what would the limits be ?

Thanks,
Hugues

The limit would mostly be the thrust the UAV can produce.

Thx Andre. Assuming the motor/prop/battery combination is able to produce the necessary thrust and RPM speed, would Ardupilot support a WP_NAV_SPEED setting as high as 90m/s ? Wouldn’t stability problems arise ?

I have asked this question before in regards to the GPS update rate but have not received a comprehensive answer. When I have attempted Mission Speeds >20m/s it has sometimes triggered an EKF error/failsafe then LAND.

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There is no limit to how fast it can go, “stability” is up to your tuning,
aerodynamics, and the responsiveness of the power system.
I see no problem with that unless you plan to do racing with 90degree turns
every 20meter and small, low gates :slight_smile:

His question was about Auto Mission speed. That’s very different than what a multirotor can achieve as max speed in a non GPS assisted mode.

All of my attempts at very fast auto flights have ended in crashes (or near crashes).
Generally it seems to lose its orientation and curves off in a random direction and slams into a tree or something.

I’m guessing fast auto flights are not something many people are doing, and there are some issues waiting to be discovered and solved.

If people have been successful, post and let us know.
I was trying to fly at around 40m/s, which my copter is capable of in manual modes. It’s been a year or more since I was trying that, so don’t have any logs to share. My first guess was magnetometer issues (because of the way it curves off to the wrong direction), but didn’t notice anything when I checked the logs.
I’ll try again some day, if I can find a big enough field.
-Edited to say, I could definitely see physical issues w/ the copter causing the issues, as it’s creating more magnetic interference and vibrations when it’s moving fast. Nothing stood out from the logs, and it works fine in stab and alt_hold at those speeds. Anyway, need more data, I guess.

thx for sharing your experience.

hi i have been trying to fly autonomusly fast as i can reach what sholud i do ? what is the max speed did you reached in auto mode ?

Hi, the max speed does not depend on Ardupilot or at least not entirely. It depends mostly about your craft’s design and propulsion equipement choices.

Make perfect sense, Extended Kalman Filter