Improved GPS Hold Thought
- Thread starter FlyEYE
- Start date
Theoretically yes, but the processing hardware and software to do it would have to be custom built for the intended application. Given that we're talking about an aircraft that is essentially floating on a column of air, wind is going to cause drift no matter how accurate the position location is and the more you try to force it to stay in that narrowly defined location the harder it will oscillate trying to do just that.
In dead calm air it would probably work very well, there reality is that condition is the exception rather than the norm, at least anywhere near where I live.
Ken
FlyEYE
Member
Developing a multiGPS unit that spits out an average value shouldn't be that difficult. Reducing the GPS variability would then allow easier tweaking of the wind handling parameters. I wouldn't expect rock solid holding but an improvement would be nice. Thinking some more, the best option would be a GPS working together with an optical system where you'd be able to get very high accuracy for position changes, i.e. mainly use the optical system to holding position.
True, but when I look at all the different multirotor companies and ventures that are allegedly working on GPS for their product I don't see any actually hitting the streets, so either it's a lot more difficult than it appears, or the costs involved put it out of reach for the average hobbyist, or both. To the best of my knowledge the only fully functional GPS (P/H, waypoints, come home, etc.) is the MK equipment, so we know its possible but no one else has yet come up with an alternative that can do everything MK can do.
HeliCommand and a couple other stabilization systems for RC Helis use optical or infrared systems for P/H, problem is depending on the system it either has to be less than 5 meters above ground to work, or it gets seriously confused by weather conditions that don't generate enough temperature differential for the I/R system to work properly.
Ken
It is more involved than it appears. On the .us forum, Vince and I were discussing a way to use a stable GPS to send error correction to the flying GPS. It turns out that it's been tried and there are complicated engineering reasons for why it doesn't work. If there was an easy way for someone to use 3 GPS modules to do the job of a several thousand dollar system then someone would have already done it.
That said, I'd love to have some bright engineer prove me wrong.