makeAP: UAV Mission Planning tool for autonomous monitoring flight tasks with respect to DSM/DEM, orthophoto data retrieval.

Description

The basic idea is to provide an easy to use workflow for controlling rtf-UAVs for planning autonomous surveys to retrieve aerial data sets.

Usage

makeAP(
  projectDir = tempdir(),
  locationName = "flightArea",
  surveyArea = NULL,
  flightAltitude = 100,
  launchAltitude = NULL,
  followSurface = FALSE,
  followSurfaceRes = 25,
  demFn = NULL,
  noFiles = 1,
  altFilter = 1,
  horizonFilter = 30,
  flightPlanMode = "track",
  useMP = FALSE,
  presetFlightTask = "remote",
  overlap = 0.8,
  maxSpeed = 20,
  maxFlightTime = 10,
  picRate = 2,
  windCondition = 0,
  uavType = "pixhawk",
  cameraType = "MAPIR2",
  cmd = 16,
  uavViewDir = 0,
  maxwaypoints = 9999,
  above_ground = TRUE,
  djiBasic = c(0, 0, 0, -90, 0),
  dA = FALSE,
  heatMap = FALSE,
  picFootprint = FALSE,
  rcRange = NULL,
  copy = FALSE,
  runDir = tempdir(),
  gdalLink = NULL
)

Arguments

projectDir: character path to the main folder where several locations can be hosted, default is tempdir()
locationName: character path to the location folder where all tasks of this plot are hosted, default is "flightArea"
surveyArea: you may provide either the coordinates by c(lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2,lon3,lat3,launchLat,launchLon) or an OGR compatible file (prefunable to find an inherited method for function ‘makeAP’ for signature ‘"missing"’erably geoJSON or KML) with at least 4 coordinates that describe the flight area. The fourth coordinate is the launch position. You will find further explanation under seealso.
flightAltitude: set the default flight altitude of the mission. It is assumed that the UAV is started at the highest point of the surveyArea otherwise you have to defined the position of launching.
launchAltitude: absolute altitude of launching position. It will overwrite the DEM based estimation if any other value than -9999
followSurface: boolean TRUE performs an altitude correction of the mission's flight altitude using additional DEM data. If no DEM data is provided and followSurface is TRUE, SRTM data will be downloaded and used. Further explanation at seealso
followSurfaceRes: horizontal step distance for analyzing the DEM altitudes
demFn: filename of the corresponding DEM data file.
noFiles: manual split number of files
altFilter: if followingTerrain is equal TRUE then altFilter is the threshold value of accepted altitude difference (m) between two way points. If this value is not exceeded, the way point is omitted due to the fact that only 99 way points per mission are allowed.
horizonFilter: integer filter size of the rolling filter kernel for the flight track. Must be multiplied by the followSurfaceRes to get the spatial extent
flightPlanMode: type of flight plan. Available are: "waypoints", "track", "manual".
useMP: default is FALSE switches to use a missionplanner/Qgroundcontrolplanner survey as planning base
presetFlightTask: (DJI only) strongly recommended to use "remote"
Options are: "simple_ortho" takes one picture/way point, "multi_ortho" takes 4 picture at a waunable to find an inherited method for function ‘makeAP’ for signature ‘"missing"’unable to find an inherited method for function ‘makeAP’ for signature ‘"missing"’ypoint, two vertically down and two in forward and backward viewing direction and an Angele of -60deg, "simple_pano" takes a 360 deg panorama picture and "remote" which assumes that the camera is controlled by the remote control (RC)
overlap: overlapping of the pictures in percent (1.0 = 100)
maxSpeed: cruising speed
maxFlightTime: user defined estimation of the lipo lifetime (20 min default)
picRate: fastest stable interval (s) for shooting pictures
windCondition: 1= calm 2= light air 1-5km/h, 3= light breeze 6-11km/h, 4=gentle breeze 12-19km/h 5= moderate breeze 20-28km/h
uavType: type of uav. currently "dji_csv" and "solo" are supported
cameraType: depending on uav system for dji the dji4k is default for solo you can choose GP3_7MP GP3_11MP and MAPIR2
cmd: mavlink command
uavViewDir: dview direction of uav
maxwaypoints: maximal number of waypoints for Litchi default is 90
above_ground: Litchi setting if the waypoint altitudes are interpreted as AGL default = TRUE
djiBasic: c(0,0,0,-90)
curvesize (DJI only) controls the curve angle of the uav passing way points. By default it is set to (= 0.0).
rotationdir (DJI only) camera control parameter set the UAV basic turn direction to right (0) or left (1)
gimbalmode (DJI only) camera control parameter 0 deactivates the gimbal control 1 activates the gimbal for focusing POIs 2 activates the gimbal for focus and interpolate a field of view in an angel of gimbalpitchangle
gimbalpitchangle (DJI only) vertical angle of camera +30 deg..-90 deg
actiontype (DJI only) individual actionype settings of the camera c(1,1,...)
actionparam (DJI only) corresponding parameter for the above individual actiontype c(0,0,...) uavViewDir viewing direction of camera default is 0
dA: if TRUE the real extent of the used DEM is returned helpful for low altitudes flight planning
heatMap: switch for calculating the overlapping factor on a raster map
picFootprint: switch for calculating the footprint at all way points
rcRange: range of estimated range of remote control
copy: copy switch
runDir: character runtime folder
gdalLink: link to GDAL binaries

Warning

Take care! There are still a lot of construction zones around. This script is far beyond to be in a mature state. Please control and backup all controls again while planning and performing autonomous flight plans and missions. You will have a lot of chances to make a small mistake what may yield in a damage of your UAV or even worse in involving people, animals or non-cash assets. Check your risk, use parachute systems and even if it is running like a charm, keep alert!

Details

makeAP (make aerial plan) creates either intermediate flight control files for the DJI phantom x UAVs or ready to upload control files for the 3DR Solo/PixHawk flight controller. The DJI control files are designed for using with the proprietary litchi flight control app exchange format, while the 3DR Solo/PixHawk flight controller files are using the MAVLINK common message set, that is used by the PixHawk flight controller family. Both are implemented very rudimentary.

DJI:
The reason using DJI is their absolute straightforward usage. Everybody can fly with a DJI but the price is a more or less closed system at least in the low budget segment. There are workarounds like the litchi app that provides additionally to a cloud based mission planner an offline/standalone interface to upload a CSV formatted way point file for autonomous flights to the Phantom.

PixHawk flight controller/3DR Solo:
The open UAV community is focused on the PixHawk autopilot unit and the Mission Planner software. It is well documented and several APIs are provided. Nevertheless a high resolution terrain following flight planning tool for autonomous obstacle avoiding flight missions is not available. makeAP creates a straightforward version of MAV format flight control rules that are ready to be uploaded directly on the Pixhawk controller using the solo_upload function.

Examples

Run this code

if (FALSE) {
# Depending on the arguments, the following spatial data sets can be returned:

# lp      the planned launching position of the UAV.
# wp      waypoints inclusive all information
# oDEM    the original (input) digital surface model (DSM)
# rDEM    the resampled (used) DSM
# fp      optimized footprints of the camera
# fA      flight area with at least 2 overlaps
# rcA     area covered by the RC according to the range and line of sight
# hm      a heatmap abundance of pictures/pixel (VERY SLOW, only if heatMap = TRUE)

## for visualisation and vecDraw load mapview
require(mapview)

## (1) get example DEM data
demFn <- system.file("extdata", "mrbiko.tif", package = "uavRmp")
tutorial_flightArea <- system.file("extdata", "flightarea.kml", package = "uavRmp")

## (2) simple flight, 100 meters above ground
##     assuming a flat topography,

fp <- makeAP(surveyArea = tutorial_flightArea,
              demFn = demFn)
              
## (3) typical real case scenario (1)
##     A flight altitudes BELOW 50 m is ambitious and risky
##     You have to use a high quality high resulution DSM
##     (here simulated with a standard DEM)



## (4) typical real case scenario (2)
##     A flight altitudes BELOW 50 m is ambitious and risky
##     You have to use a high quality high resulution DSM
##     (here simulated with a standard DEM)
##     This examples uses a flight planning from the QGroundcotrol Survey planning tool
##     It also used the all calculations for camera flight speed etc.
##     NOTE EXPERIMENTAL 

demFn <- system.file("extdata", "mrbiko.tif", package = "uavRmp")
tutorial_flightArea <- system.file("extdata", "qgc_survey.plan", package = "uavRmp")
fp <- makeAP(surveyArea=tutorial_flightArea,
            useMP = TRUE,
            followSurface = TRUE,
            demFn = demFn,
            windCondition = 1,
            uavType = "pixhawk",
            followSurfaceRes = 5,
             altFilter = .75)

## (5) typical real case scenario (3)
##     This examples uses a flight planning from the QGroundcotrol Survey planning tool
##     It also used the all calculations for camera flight speed etc.
##     The flight plan is modyfied by splitting up the task according to 99 Waypoints
##     and flight time and saved as litchi csv format 
##     NOTE EXPERIMENTAL tested with DJI mavic mini 2

demFn <- system.file("extdata", "mrbiko.tif", package = "uavRmp")
tutorial_flightArea <- system.file("extdata", "qgc_survey.plan", package = "uavRmp")
fp <- makeAP(surveyArea=tutorial_flightArea,
            useMP = TRUE,
            demFn = demFn,
            maxFlightTime = 25,
            uavType = "dji_csv")
            
## call a simple shiny interface
shiny::runApp(system.file("shiny/plan2litchi/", "app.R", package = "uavRmp"))
        
        
## (6) view results

mapview::mapview(fp$wp,cex=4, lwd=0.5)+
mapview::mapview(fp$lp,color = "red", lwd=1,cex=4)+
mapview::mapview(fp$fA,color="blue", alpha.regions = 0.1,lwd=0.5)+
mapview::mapview(fp$oDEM,col=terrain.colors(256))



## (6) digitize flight area using the small "onboard" tool vecDraw()
##     save vectors as "kml" or "json" files
##     provide full filename  +  extension!


vecDraw(preset="uav")
}