Performance of loiter and auto navigation for quadcopter in mission planning application using open source platform
Mohamad Faizal Abd Rahman, S M Radzuan, Zakaria Hussain, Muhammad Farris Khyasudeen, Khairul Azman Ahmad, F. Ahmad, Adi Izhar Che Ani · 2017
Recently, the use of an open source software in developing a quadcopter for multi-tasking application becomes preferable due to its flexibility, customisability and cost saving compared to the commercially available unit manufactured by drone's company. This paper reports the study on the implementation of open source software for mission planning activity of quadcopter. The study is carried out to investigate the stability and accuracy of two flying modes; loiter and auto navigation that is implemented using Mission Planner software. It is found that loiter performance is very stable for all the measured parameter especially for altitude higher than 3m. For auto navigation, it shows that the planned trajectories can be successfully achieved using waypoint setup in the selected software platform. However, different pattern of trajectories gives some variation in terms of accuracy and time taken to complete the given task. In general, the use of the selected open source platform is found to be suitable for loiter based application at high altitude and mission planning application with minimal waypoints and less turning points.