Early FW Mode via Airspeed Sensor

PX4 Autopilot VTOL 🚁
1

Hello,

I had a VTOL transition way too early into FW mode because of incorrect airspeed sensor data.

I am using an MRO airspeed sensor: mRo I2C Airspeed Sensor JST-GH - MS4525DO

Here is airspeed sensor:

image
image870×383 33.9 KB

And here is the log: https://review.px4.io/plot_app?log=4b1d6194-7c9e-4f3f-bd2d-f4b4edc5508d

It appears that the VTOL saw that the airspeed was 10m/s and transitioned to FW early. Because the airspeed sensor was all over the place, and the aircraft was not actually traveling 10m/s the VTOL crashed.

2

I joined the VTOL/FW meeting and this is what was discussed

  1. Put your finger over the pitot tube and make sure that the airspeed shows 0, and the system is stable
  2. fly multicopter mode forward, land, and double check that the readings from the airspeed sensor match how fast the VTOL was moving in multicopter mode
  3. We should implement a histogram that keeps track of airspeed over time, and uses that to decide when a transition has finished (not just a small sample)