Light drone shows have appeared recently, but Intel and Ehang have already set world records in the number of controlled simultaneous drones. All this struggle takes place in the States, Europe, China, the United Arab Emirates. If you live in the Russian Federation, then you can see the performance of drones at best in the recording or appreciate the beauty of the photos. Neither one nor the other was fine with me, and I wanted to make my own Show of Drones.
On May 9, we launched 15 quadcopters with a program dedicated to Victory Day.
The first question is how it usually works about navigation. Now centimeter accuracy is used for positioning as a result of a combination of Glonass and GPS signals, as amended from the ground. When there is more than one drone in the sky, it is of great importance and allows not only to build different figures in the air, but also to prevent collisions between them. The distance between the drones is often less than 2 meters, and when using the "usual" GPS / Glonass collision will be inevitable.
For the flock used drones own assembly. Theoretically, you can use some stock models, but they have to be modified so much that it's easier to assemble your own right away. In addition, the reliability of stock models is often questionable, and in the case of a pack, this is a very important point. The construction of drones went through several iterations, and now quadrocopters are built on the basis of the 450th frame. On the one hand, they are quite large, which is not very convenient during transportation - to bring the flock on flights, that is still a logistical task, on the other hand, they work well for the wind, bad weather and have a significant margin on flight time. The size also allows you to install a large LED flashlight that can be seen for several kilometers.
All drones are controlled from the ground station, during the flight, each drone is synchronized, as well as current parameters are monitored. Night flights are generally very difficult, and without monitoring, you can not see anything. The program of performance is formed in advance. First, sketch on paper, then pictures are selected, arrangements are made on them and only then all movements of drones and control of their lights are recorded.
Of course, all transitions are counted programmatically, but sometimes you have to insert intermediate transitions that you need to manually control. Before the physical flight, the performance is run in the simulator, where you can clearly see what is happening and how, you can visually assess both the figures themselves and the possibility of incidents during the transitions.
After the program of performance does not cause censures, all the batteries are charged and inserted, the screws are set and the drones themselves are already on the take-off platform ready to explode in the air, anyway, something can go wrong:
Therefore, we constantly have to recheck everything, test, keep records and statistics on failures and breakdowns of every detail in order to fix everything or modify it in time. It takes a lot of time and effort to prepare, control and post-flight analysis.
But when a luminous flock takes off and begins to build colored figures, smoothly flowing into one another, or flashing sharply in the dark - indescribable feelings. Live, and not by video or photo, it looks absolutely fantastic.