Safety Setup

The Vehicle Setup > Safety page is used to configure the most important failsafe settings.

Failsafe Actions

Failsafe detection can trigger one of the following (selectable) actions.

It is possible to recover from a failsafe action (if the cause is fixed) by switching modes. For example, in the case where RC Loss failsafe causes the vehicle to enter Return mode, if RC is recovered you can change to Position mode and continue flying.

If a failsafe occurs while the vehicle is responding to another failsafe (e.g. Low battery while in Return mode due to RC Loss), the specified failsafe action for the second trigger is ignored. Instead the action is determined by separate system level and vehicle specific code. This might result in the vehicle being changed to a manual mode so the user can directly manage recovery.

Low Battery

The l_ow battery failsafe_ is triggered when the battery capacity drops below one (or more warning) level values.

The most common configuration is to set the action at Return mode at critically low level, land mode at current position if reaching dangerously low levels and the levels with Warn > Failsafe > Emergency. With this configuration the failsafe will trigger warning, then return, and finally landing as the capacity drops below the respective levels.

Alternatively set the Failsafe Action to warn, return, or land when the Battery Failsafe Level level is reached.

Object Detection

Enable/disable collision prevention and obstacle avoidance, and set the closest approach distance allowed when collision prevention is active.

RC Loss

Set the action on RC loss, and how quickly the vehicle responds.

Data Link Loss

Set the action on data-link loss (loss of telemetry to ground station), and how quickly the vehicle responds.

Geofence Failsafe

The Geofence Failsafe is a "virtual" cylinder centered around the home position. If the flight controller detects a situation where the vehicle is on a trajectory to move outside of the cylinder (an "impending breach"), then the specified Failsafe Action will trigger.

Auterion Mission Control supports more complicated GeoFence geometries with multiple arbitrary polygonal and circular inclusion and exclusion areas in: Planning > GeoFence.

Set the action on impending fence breach, and the radius and/or altitude of the geofence cylinder.

If the Hold mode action is set then the hold location is positioned such that it will not cause a geofence violation. For fixed wings this means that the center of the loiter circle is set more than the loiter radius away from the geofence boundary.

If Return mode action is set then there is no guarantee that the vehicle will not violate any geofence on its return path.

Return Mode Settings

Generally return mode settings will be pre-configured by the supplier of the vehicle. The mode may be configured to use a return destination that is not affected by these settings.

Return mode causes a vehicle to fly at a safe height to a safe destination, where it may loiter and/or then land. This section allows the return height, and landing behaviour to be specified for rally point and home location landings.