Landmark Precision Landing System

1

Hey have any of you’ll worked or used the landmark precision landing system. I found their website and found it intriguing Products – Landmark Landing

Can any of you’ll help me out on this?

2

Hi Chandy,

Jacob here :waving_hand: , creator of the Landmark system. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

Our Setup Guide covers PX4 integration at a high level.

Are you interested in how the system works with PX4? (compared to ArduPilot)

Do you have a specific use case in mind?

If you share your airframe, flight controller, and PX4 version, I can provide more insights.

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3

Here’s a video of PX4 Precision Landing with the Landmark Precision Landing System.

4

Hi, @Jgunde I’m considering using your product for landing in a nest. Could you help me understand more about it?

  • What is the maximum and minimum altitude AGL (Above Ground Level) from the marker that your system supports?

  • Can I use it for heading orientation correction?

  • Can I use different markers for different altitudes or landing stages?

5

Hi Michael,

Thanks for reaching out!

To answer your questions:

  • The minimum distance between the camera and a marker is about 3 cm. This was tested with a 1 cm x 1 cm marker.

  • There is no maximum detection distance as it depends on the size of the marker. The purchase includes the “A4 Max” landing target shown here. This landing target contains a 21 cm x 21 cm marker that can be detected from up to 10 meters away.

  • The Landmark System works by sending a MAVLink LANDING_TARGET message to the autopilot. This message contains the full 3D position and orientation of the landing target. In theory, this can be used to align the heading of the UAV to the target. Currently, this functionality is not implemented in PX4 but there is work being done to implement it: Pull Request #22008.

  • Yes, different sized markers can be used depending on the landing requirements. We provide landing targets with varying sizes here. The Landmark System also supports custom landing targets. (A “landing target” is an arrangement of one or more AprilTag markers.)

    Best,
    Jacob

6

hey Jacob!
Thank you for the fast replay,
is there in option to detach the camera from the raspberryPi?
what is the FOV of the camera?

7

The Landmark System contains the ArduCam B0390 camera. It is essentially identical to the Raspberry Pi Camera V2 and has a field of view of 62.2° (H) × 48.8° (V). It is connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W via an FPC cable. The camera can be disconnected, but doing so would void the warranty because it requires opening the enclosure and, if not done properly, could cause damage.

8

@Michael_Kazula

We’ve just launched our Landing Target Configurator! I thought you may be interested as it allows users to create, modify, and export custom landing targets for the Landmark Precision Landing System. Please let me know if you find it useful or have any feedback. :smiley:

9

Hi @Jgunde and @Michael_Kazula, please not that the PR mentioned: https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/pull/22008 is stale and was replaced by Draft: Static Vision-based target esitmator (Kalman Filter) by JonasPerolini · Pull Request #23726 · PX4/PX4-Autopilot · GitHub .

To help speed up the merge process it would be great if you could help flight-test the new feature.

I’m happy to discuss the details in the PX4 Discord.

10

Thanks @JonasPerolini! It probably won’t be for a couple weeks, but I’ll definitely flight test this. I’ll message you about the details.

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11

Thanks @Jgunde, note that if you’re using openCV to detect aruco markers, this PR Include pixel-based confidence in ArUco marker detection by JonasPerolini · Pull Request #23190 · opencv/opencv · GitHub might be of interest to you. It extends the marker detection to output a pixel-based confidence which can be used (in combination with other metrics) to provide a detection uncertainty and feed it to the vision target estimator.

12

Hello,

I am currently working on a precision landing setup using the Landmark Precision Landing System connected to a Pixhawk 6C Mini via the TELEM2 port.

The hardware connection appears to be correct, and I have configured all the required PLND (precision landing) parameters as per the documentation. I can also confirm that the Landmark system is transmitting MAVLink messages.

However, I am facing an issue where the aircraft does not take any corrective action based on the MAVLink position data sent by the Landmark system. Even after the target is detected and position data is being transmitted, the vehicle does not respond or adjust its position for precision landing.

I would like to know if:

  • I am missing any additional parameters or configuration settings

  • There are specific flight modes that must be used for precision landing in a VTOL quadplane configuration

  • Any other prerequisite conditions (EKF settings, landing mode sequence, or message verification) are required for the aircraft to start reacting to the MAVLink data

Could you please advise if there is anything else that needs to be configured or verified to ensure that the vehicle properly accepts and acts on the MAVLink position data from the Landmark system?

13

Hi Sushil,

Thank you for reaching out. I just received your email and will follow up with you there.

Since this is a PX4 forum and it appears you are using ArduPilot, I suggest creating a post on the ArduPilot forum: https://discuss.ardupilot.org

Best,
Jacob Gunderson
Founder, Landmark Landing

14

hey @Jgunde thank you very much for the fast replay
we started integration to the system :slight_smile: !
we connected the system and the mavlink messages work, but im sure we are missing something…
we dont need to enter a mechanical offset of installation?
where do i set the priority of each landing target?
do i need a calibration flight?
we already did a good PID for angle and position control loop but i do believe we will need to “play around“ with:
MPC_JERK_AUTO
MPC_XY_P
MPC_XY_VEL_P
MPC_XY_VEL_I
MPC_Z_P
What do you think ?
we appreciate the help

15

@Michael_Kazula
Glad to hear the MAVLink messages are working!

PX4 does not support a mounting offset for devices that send LANDING_TARGET messages. (In contrast, ArduPilot provides the PLND_CAM_POS_X/Y/Z params.) We’ve found that precision landing still works with the Landmark module mounted off-center.
A landing offset can be implemented by adjusting the origin of a landing target using our Landing Target Configurator. This is different from a mounting offset though.

There isn’t a concept of priority for each landing target. Now that you mention it, this may be a good feature to add to the next software release. Currently, if multiple landing targets are enabled and visible, the Landmark module uses the landing target that’s closest to the image center.
Our Landing Targets docs page has more information. Under the custom landing targets section, there’s information about adding or removing landing targets.

The only calibration needed is PID tuning. No additional calibration is needed for the Landmark System. Tuning the params you mentioned may improve overall aircraft performance, but we haven’t found them necessary for successful precision landing.

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