I've been reading a lot on this forum and others. To me, the most common sources of crashes are: actually hitting something due to pilot error and return to home crashes.
I'd like to address this second category because there is a very easy solution to it, that can be done via software (firmware/app) and would benefit just about everyone. It's so simple I've thought about it a while before posting in case I'm missing something. And DJI Legal, I hereby relinquish any rights to this idea; you are free to implement it without compensation or acknowledgement to me, so long as you do not charge anything extra for this "feature."
Currently we have Return to Home and Smart Return to Home. Thank you, these have no doubt saved many folks in many instances. They have their limitations and problems though. They have to have the right altitude set, and it's done manually, before engagement. And there are limits to how high and also, on systems with Obsticle Avoidance, limitations on what to do should an unexpected obstacle be encountered. Many drones have been lost because RTH crashed into something by taking a as-the-bird-flys straight line back home path.
The solution elements are already already present on all the drones. A record of where the drone has flown and the ability to follow waypoints autonomously. The flight record has a very accurate "breadcrumb" trail and I way points can be programmed and followed, even while out of contact with the controller.
One last comment before I spit out the solution I'm sure many are guessing. In most cases we do not need to fly all the way back home automatically. The RTH function would co-exist with this new one, for times when a straight line, come back to home, is still required. My solution doesn't replace RTH.
The most common times SRTH is used is when the drone loses contact briefly with the controller. RTH kicks in and then just simplistically fly in a straight line back, only offering altitude (and maybe some front OA, if it's on and working) home. What pilots Really want in these instances is control of their craft back so they can resume flying safely and under control.
Back To Contact or BTC is my proposed name. When the drone loses connection, this system would first stop and hover the drone in place for, say, 3 seconds. Signal might resume for various reasons, let's give it a chance (and for the system to queue up what may come next).
If the connection is still missing after 3 seconds; the drone should read back from the flight log the GPS coordinates of the path it just safely flew and replay those waypoints and fly, essentially (if not physically), back along the path that had radio connectivity, it would fly along that path as long as necessary; eventually that would come home to land.
This would be both optional to engage and, of course, can be overridden at any time.
The simple idea: when the drone loses contact with the controller, stop, hover, then fly back along the path it just came, presumable back into signal range where the pilot can decide what to do himself.
Sincerely,
Happy DJI pilot seeking to be safer & happier one,
DiB
