[Paparazzi-devel] Discussion point around toss and fly drone

[David Conger]

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good Summer. I start this
discussion because I am often interacting with people who consider a
MAV for a business or research etc. It seems the "Holy Grail" to have
something that can power on and fly (even just hover in place) with
zero setup. The follow a GPS dongle is also something I can see many
uses for (following wildlife or toss the dongle into the sea and let
the current carry it etc).
I saw a surprising drone video for "Lily". A feature is no setup just
take it out and toss it to fly. Video seems to support this.
Interestingly in this discussion list I remember someone asking about
just this for their Paparazzi quadrotor.
How is this possible to take Lily out of a backpack, power on (not
even level on the ground), then toss it and it recovers and flies? How
will Lily know about magnetic variation? GPS fix? Level attitude so
quickly?
It seems an interesting discussion because in all these years I have
never seen anything like this or thought it possible, then again
things are only impossible until they are done no?
Has anyone done such a thing with Paparazzi based multi-rotors?
Cheers,
David B Conger