Creating an automated flight in Measure Ground Control

April 30, 2021

Creating an automated flight in Measure Ground Control

Figure 1:Measure Ground Control Opening screen

Introduction:

When working with UAS for data collection, there is often a variety of applications you will need to cycle through depending on what you would like to do. This can be a variety of things, but here are a few examples;

Viewing airspace maps
Adjusting Gimbal or other vehicle settings
Adjusting Camera settings
Manuel flights
Automated flights

Swapping between applications can be confusing, and can possibly lead to problems. This is where MGC can come in, as you can do all of the above functions off of one application. For this post I will be initially going over how to create an automated flight plan. Afterwards I will be showing a few example plans from an assignment in AT 31900 at Purdue University.

Making an automated flight plan:

Figure 2: MGC home screen

Firstly, you want to make sure that you are properly signed in to MGC as seen in the top right, as well as operating on the latest version (check your appstore). On this first screen you are presented with many options such as; Airspace map, Settings, Fly, flight plan, and a checklist pop out on the left hand side. We will be working within flight plan.

Figure 3: DJI Login

While not necessary, you may want to log into DJI on the top right. Depending on your platform this can help make sure nothing goes wrong.

Now select flight plan.

Figure 4: Flight plan screen

Once on flight plan you will see an aerial map of your current location, for me this is in Lafayette near a park. Depending on you application either click on grid or waypoint to begin your flight plan.

Once you click on a flight type, you will see all other flights made by you, and flights in the area. For this tutorial we will be making a flight over pickleball courts in the park nearby.

Figure 5: Grid Flight menu

To create the actual flight path of the aircraft, simply drag a finger or stylis over the area of operation. After you do this you will be given a list of flight settings that you may want to change based on your operation, such as overlap. speed, altitude, etc.

Figure 6: Completed grid flight

After selecting save flight you are ready to go! Simply connect to your platform, making sure to write to sd, and an additional option will appear under save flight to begin the flight.