'Humanitarian' quadcopter mission

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1

Hi all,

This year myself and a few colleagues from university will be embarking on a project to build a completely autonomous multicopter, that will take off, follow waypoints, drop two 1kg supply packages onto a target then fly home again. Hopefully without any manual overide, and a flight distance of around 2km.

I have quite a bit of fixed wing RC experience but not much on multi rotors and autopilots. Would anyone be able to suggest a suitable autopilot for the job? From my bit of research the ardupilot looks like a strong candidate, simple GCS that can activate functions at different points, but how would a dji controller compare? This sounds like a job for open source I think.

There’s extra points available at the competition if the vehicle can identify the ‘drop zone’ (large red sqaure with a border) when it gets to the predetermined area, and using a camera home-in on the target more accurately than the GPS can, but not entirely sure how you’d go about that autonomously.

Sorry for the noobie questions, and thanks in advance.

James

2

Hi

In terms of an autopilot I would definitely say that an ardupilot based autopilot is the best way to go when you consider the features and cost. To get waypoint features on a DJI system will be much more expensive.

Furthermore the mission planning on an arducopter platform is very flexible so you can easily setup an autonomous mission that includes the package drop at a specific waypoint. And since its open source you can also hack things if needed and you know what your doing :slight_smile: