[Quadcopter] Unexpected Crash in Mission Mode

🧪 Flight Testing & Log Analysis
1

Greetings,

The following is a log file of a quadcopter crash that happened during a mission mode. Before this crash, the qudcopter preformed the same exact mission 5 times successfully with no issues. In the 6th trial, which corresponds to the following log file, the drone just descended unexpectedly. The pilot tried to take over, but it was too late and crashed. The logs seems fine to me, and I was not able to pin point no the issue(s) that caused the crash. So, I am sharing this here to have more opinions that could help investigate this crash.

Hardware:

  • Quadcopter (Hover 1)
  • FCU: Orange Cube
  • 12Ah smart battery
  • Lidar Lite used for landing

Link to the log file,
https://review.px4.io/plot_app?log=92e7d2e7-14f9-4fdd-8dde-765ec47083de

Thank you.

2

@Mzahana The vehicle’s hover thrust seems to be very high (~0.8) and the thrust seems to be saturating through out the mission. This means that the vehicle might be too heavy. A recommended value of the thrust to weight ratio is at least 2 - 2.5 in order to operate safely in wind for multirotors.

Can you confirm that the vehicle’s max thrust is probably close to the vehicle weight? If this is the case it is most likely that the vehicle does not have enough control authority to operate safely.