Drone Tracking With 3D Vertical Map
It is possible to place stationary beacons on the wall
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I am a student working on a drone flight test simulation environment for a lab,
Nice to meet you.
and I have a question about beacon placement and orientation for optimal results.I have read over some of the publicly available literature, and it seems that your default setup for this would be to have four beacons on the same plane of the floor with two beacons placed in adjacent corners on the ceiling.
No, no. That would already be a very advanced configuration. We don’t recommend starting with it unless absolutely impossible to build otherwise.
The default configuration for 3D tracking is far more basic: https://marvelmind.com/
I did see in a few posted videos however that you have placed them at a certain height rather than specifically on the floor, and I was wondering if there was a more optimal setup?
– Yes, 02a: Simple 3D Tracking – for example, drone indoor – is much easier, more robust, and more accurate at the same time
– https://youtu.be/
– https://youtu.be/
We are looking at placing the XY plane on the wall instead, essentially rotating the standard placement by 90°.
It is possible. It is more complex, and you can make mistakes, but it is a working solution.
You don’t need two additional beacons on the opposite wall. Four stationary beacons on the left wall will do the job.
We think that this may be more optimal for our purposes as the Z coordinate in this sense wouldn’t be at a small angle as the drone will rarely be within 1-2 meters of the wall itself. I have attached a diagram with an X to designate each beacon location to illustrate this in the above image.
Yes, it is possible. It is a working solution.
Again, it is not a big deal. Just don’t get confused by coordinate systems.
Again, it is not a big deal. Just don’t get confused by coordinate systems.
Additionally, I am particularly curious about the optimal orientation of the beacons themselves. On your placement manual documentation, it indicates that some of the TX on each beacon be deactivated, and placing the beacons “in-line” with the corner they are located in. I am curious if it would be more optimal to place them with antenna pointed towards the center tracking zone as indicated in the picture below. Do you have any recommendations?
– Yes, ideally, you point to the center of the volume your system serves and enable only TX4 – the central transducer. That will give you the highest accuracy. Each transducer produces a 90 ° × 90 ° ultrasound beam.
Problems and challenges
- If you place the stationary beacons on the floor, then when the drone is on the floor as well, you will have low accuracy in Z. Potentially, very low accuracy. It is all about the basic geometry. See more:
Solutions and advice
1) Do it simply:
- Follow the Placement Manual and install the stationary beacons on the ceiling, if it is feasible
- It will return the highest accuracy, the simplest configuration, and the most robust tracking
2) Do a 3D vertical map:
- The solution above is very good if you fly indoors, but doesn’t have access to the ceiling
- It is still all above the geometry. So, as long as triangles/pyramids where the stationary beacons are the base and the mobile beacon is the tip are not too elongated, the tracking will be good. Just don’t get confused with the coordinate systems, axes, etc.
3) Do The Precise Z configuration:
- When you want to arrange the landing of a drone flying far and high, then use this configuration
- But use it when you really need it, because it is substantially more complex than the first two setups