Launchpad for automatically launching Phantom?

[manandufo]

Has anyone made a 'launchpad' for dispatching a Phantom automatically or remotely?

Sometimes it's awkward to carry the drone and the remote somewhere and fly off to take photos. Instead, I'd like to have an app in my phone, and I'd just tell it 'fly here and take photos of me' or point the target on map. After taking photos, it would RTH.

In the 'launchpad', Phantom would be in a box or a dome, opening automatically before the flight. A couple of servos or something is needed for starting the bird and the remote. Also, I'd need an Android phone and a custom app to send the flight plan to the Phantom. Also a Raspberry Pi or similar to control the dome/box door and servos.

The next step would be to attach some cargo to the bird to deliver for the user, such as tools, a beer can or whatever. Alternatively it could be used for automatic surveillance purposes.

Here's a professional solution for this problem: dronematrix

This is going to be a significantly big project, so if anyone is interested in joining this effort, welcome to the team!

 

[microlinux]

How would you charge the battery?

 

[manandufo]

Excellent question, recharging would need some real engineering effort. Initially I'm not going to do it. Also, landing the drone accurately to the launchpad would be a problem. RTH is not accurate enough.

With the recharging, I don't know how complicated is the logic in the charger and how many nodes should be connected. For landing, maybe some machine vision-based logic would be needed. It might be easier to build a customized drone instead of hacking Phantom to do all this.

 

[microlinux]

I'm pretty sure the charging logic is in the batteries themselves. I think the more difficult part is physically adapting the charging system . . . and then do you really want to be charging LiPo batteries unattended?

Some serious difficulties here, but would be an interesting project.

 

[manandufo]

Perhaps some metal conductor to the drone's legs, and wiring to the battery connector? Most likely not so simple.

Yep, at least with the first versions I'll keep some safety distance between the drone launchpad and any infrastructure. Some telemetry about charging, internal temperatures etc will be needed as well.

 

[tcope]

DJI has this... it's called Mavic Pro.

 

[microlinux]

DJI has this... it's called Mavic Pro.

Probably cheaper in the end, but not nearly as much fun!