Quick actions sidebar

Control your vehicle by using quick actions

Auterion Mission Control allows a pilot to control a vehicle using quick actions: takeoff, fly to location and/or orbit, return home and land, etc. Once at a location users can use camera and gimbal controls to capture images.

The quick actions are often useful even when flying manually, as they simplify operations like taking off and returning to the takeoff location.

The quick vehicle actions are accessible from the sidebar on the left. The toolbar only displays valid tool options for the current vehicle state (invalid options are hidden or greyed out).

With the arrow, you can open up the sidebar to have the title next to each icon:

Takeoff, Land, RTL, Pause

The basic flight operations are all initiated by pressing the appropriate button on the fly toolbar.

Depending on the vehicle type, you might find different buttons.

		Multicopter	VTOL
	Takeoff	Arm vehicle and takeoff to specified altitude (option visible if landed).	N/A
	VTOL Takeoff	N/A	Sets feasible landing approaches around the Home position. Then takeoff, transition and loiter in fixed-wing, see VTOL Takeoff/RTL
	Land	Land vehicle at current location and disarm (option visible if flying).	Only as emergency action. If in fixed-wing mode: Transition to hover and land at current location.
	Return	Fly to a safe point. The path/landing behaviour depends on vehicle configuration.	Fly to a safe point. The path/landing behaviour depends on vehicle configuration.
	Mission	Start the on the vehicle uploaded mission. If a waypoint was selected before, then start from that waypoint.	Start the on the vehicle uploaded mission. If a waypoint was selected before, then start from that waypoint.
	Hold	Pause the current operation and hold the current position.	If in fixed-wing mode: Pause the current operation and loiter around the current position.

Buttons that are not relevant to the current vehicle state are either disabled or hidden (e.g. takeoff is a precondition for other operations).

Actions must be confirmed before they will be executed. Confirmation prompts are displayed in the bottom center of the map (if an altitude can be set for an operation, a vertical slider will be displayed at the same time).

For example, the Return Confirmation is shown below.

VTOL Takeoff / Return to Launch handling

The recommended way to handle takeoffs and landings of VTOLs is via VTOL Takeoff and RTL using safe landing approaches.

• The VTOL Takeoff will let the vehicle takeoff in hover mode, climb to the specified relative altitude, transition to fixed-wing mode and establish a loiter a the specified location on the map in 80m relative altitude.

• The Return to Launch feature when using safe landing approaches gives the vehicle the ability to select the landing approach with the best alignment against the currently estimated wind direction. After choosing the approach, the vehicle returns to the selected approach, loiters down in fixed-wing mode, transitions to hover and lands at the takeoff position again.

Procedure:

1. In the Safety tab of the Vehicle Overview, set the Return to Launch altitude appropriately. It should be set higher than the highest obstacle in the mission area (e.g. building or hill), as this is the height above takeoff altitude the vehicle will climb to first when a RTL is triggered.

2. Place the vehicle on the ground, facing an open corridor and the wind if possible. Click on Takeoff.

3. Mark the safe landing approaches and set the Back-transition Height. It defines to which altitude the vehicle will loiter down in fixed-wing mode before transitioning to hover and can be set with the slider on the right side of the screen. If possible, set it higher than obstacles in close proximity of the takeoff location (e.g. trees). Then mark the sectors without any obstacles higher than the back-transition height green. The whole figure can be rotated by dragging the white ball. During RTL, the system will select the one green sector that is best aligned against the currently estimated wind direction. Thus it is highly recommended to mark as many sectors green as possible, as this will give the system the best chance for as safe landing. Hold to Confirm to upload your selected landing approach settings to the vehicle.

4. An orange circle appears on the map. This sets the transition direction as well as the loiter position, and can be dragged around (to some extend) by holding the white ball. The transition direction can only diverge +/-45° from the vehicle heading on the ground. Hold to Confirm to execute the VTOL Takeoff.

5. The landing approaches can be changed in flight or before the landing, though not fully deleted (at least one sector needs to be green to be able to upload the changed approach). To change the landing Approaches select Return and then the edit icon on the map. In case that a different landing procedure/location is needed, a mission landing can be uploaded to the vehicle and executed manually.

6. Execute a Return to Launch by pressing the corresponding button. The RTL can be paused any time in fixed-wing mode by pressing Hold. Pausing in hover mode is no longer possible.

VTOL landing Approaches

VTOL Takeoff

If the end of the flight is not at the same location as the takeoff, the flight should be controlled through a mission

Flight Tools

The most frequently used flight operations can be shown on the left Toolbar by selecting in the lower left corner and initiated by pressing the appropriate button.

		Multicopter	VTOL
	POI	Set a Point of Interest on the map to point the Gimbal in this direction. (Only available with Gimbal)	Set a Point of Interest on the map to point the Gimbal in this direction. (Only available with Gimbal)
	Goto	Makes the vehicle fly to a specific location (can also be used within a mission and the mission will be paused).	Not available (Use orbit to orbit around a location)
	Orbit	Makes the vehicle orbit around a specific location.	Makes the vehicle orbit around a specific location.
	Fig 8	N/A	Make the vehicle fly in a figure of 8. Useful to keep the camera pointed in one direction. If used in combination with POI the Fig 8 will be realigned to the POI.
	Set Altitude	Change the altitude the vehicle is flying at.	Not available (Use Orbit or Fig 8 to change the altitude)
	Change Speed	Change the speed the vehicle is flying at.	Change the speed the vehicle is flying at. (Only available in AMC advanced mode)
	Transition	N/A	May be used to toggle a transition between VTOL fixed-wing and multirotor modes. (Only available in AMC advanced mode)
	Follow	Vehicle follows an object a POI is set at or the camera is tracking. (Only available with Gimbal in POI or tracking mode)	Vehicle orbits around an object a POI is set at or the camera is tracking. (Only available with Gimbal in POI or tracking mode)

All the above actions will demand from the user a confirmation before the execution.

An (optional) handheld controller is required to change the radius, speed, and direction of rotation of an Orbit for Multicopters.

• Left stick:

  • up/down: ascent/descent speed (center to lock altitude).

  • left/right: no effect.

• Right stick:

  • up/down: orbit radius decrease/increase (center to lock radius).

  • left/right: orbit acceleration clockwise/counter-clockwise (center to lock current speed).

Map Tools:

The map tools help you to easily interact with the map. The most frequently used map tools can be shown on the left Toolbar by selecting in the lower left corner.

	Name	Description
	Center map	Shows the centre of the map.
	Marker	Add different shaped and coloured markers on the map.
	Clear path	Guiding the drone through a clear path
	Map layers	Choose from different map layers.
	Load KML overlay	Load KML files.
	Measure	Measure distance or area on the map.