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Flight planning and capture option for M210 v2

S7ewie

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Hi all,

I've been having a huge headache recently with my M210 and I’m struggling to find good advice.

My main use is 2D mapping agricultural field trials with either a Zenmuse X5s (at 0.5 - 2 cm/px GSD) or Micasense RedEdge MX multispectral (typically at 2cm/px). commonly around 25 - 30 m above ground level.

All has been going fairly well using the basic DJI Pilot app until recently when one of our sites was on a slight hill. It wasn't even a step hill, in fact I barely noticed it. But between my take off point and the highest point in the trial, the drone lost about 10 - 15 m in height which consequently ruined the 80% overlap and caused the image processing to fail.

Taking off from a higher point wasn’t an option and there’s no terrain awareness or ability to offset your take off point in DJI Pilot.

This has forced me to look at different options which has consequently forced me to look at different tablets. I’ve listed some of the software I’ve looked at below and some of the concerns I have with it but I’d really appreciate some opinions from others with more experience as there appears to be an absolute minefield of apps now. I’ll update the list as a way of keeping track of things:

DroneDeploy
- Probably the best I’ve looked at so far. Terrain awareness works well. The automatic settings have caused some issues though. It appears to use auto white balance and flies too fast. I think you can set these manually using DJI Pilot but DD isn’t compatible with the CrystalSky so I used my iPhone and DJI Pilot isn’t compatible with IOS so I’ll need to test it with an android tablet when I can get ahold of one. Also doesn’t allow you to set a “margin” outside of your area and I don't think it can trigger the RedEdge but on the plus side, it’s free.

UGCS
- Been recommended by a few. Honestly though I just find it too complicated. I’ve yet to work out how to get it set up and my trial is nearly over. You don’t appear to be able to set up plans on the tablet either which to me, puts it at a disadvantage to DD or DJI Pilot.

Map Pilot Pro by Maps Made Simple
- Again could be a good option, I’ve yet to actually test it out with the drone. The pricing model puts me off though. I don’t like the whole pay as you go thing and it would be an issue getting funding in the company that I work for as it would be difficult to put a solid figure onto it. Also cant import a KML which isn't ideal. I think it’s compatible on multiple devices though and I think you can control the drone/camera within the same app?

Drone Harmony
- Looks promising but I don't have an android to test it and you can’t test their terrain awareness on the free trial so that puts me off a little. I don’t want to buy anything I haven’t thoroughly tested first.

Measure Ground Control
- Looks quite promising. Am currently testing but the app keeps crashing whenever I go to turn on terrain following so I’m still looking into it.

Hammer Drones
- Started looking last night. Further testing required.
 
You may want to consider ESRI SiteScan Lite in your process. So far the best “terrain follow” mission planner I’ve tried. I’d consider myself still early in the trying process, but I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what I’ve seen so far.
I've tried Map Pilot Pro, and it is a great app except when I was planning, I was limited on number of waypoints. I typically am flying larger areas and the app was a significant limiter in my application. In addition, it also throttled down my flight speed significantly. So, I ditched the use of it.
SiteScan Lite has not done any of those things and has produced some really great results for terrain follow so far. I’m sure you’re aware, but just be very cautions for any man made or man adjusted terrain features as they likely won’t be included in the elevation profiles for your planned area and could result in the proverbial drone face plant. Saw it nearly happen on a mine waste dump...
The downfall that I’ve experienced with SoteScan is the limited control an operator has while flying. If you need to pause your mission and take control of the UAV, SiteScan requires you to abort the mission completely before turning full operation back over to the operator. I personally don’t care for this, but when everything is going as it should, it’s not a problem; it’s the times when things unexpectedly pop up that it becomes an issue.
Hope that’s helpful. Best of luck.
 
I can only speak for Drone Deploy because that is all I use for mapping. Just recently did some property in the Sierra Foothills. the property had various elevations, and DD did a good job.

The elevations vary 126 ft.

1623799242165.png
 

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