Planning a Mission in IGC

This section presents the basics of setting up an autonomous mission in IGC, and describes in detail how to create a mission with an example.

Overview

Once pilot is comfortable flying an IFT aircraft, learning how to plan an autonomous mission greatly expands the applications of the aircraft. The information in this section is based upon the foundation created in open-source QGroundControl. The QGC website can be referenced for further general mission planning functionality.

Planning a Mission in IGC

The figure below is a screen capture of the home screen of Inspired Ground Control. Here you will see on the left hand side a "Plan" icon. To begin planning a mission, select the "Plan" icon.

IGC Main Screen

After selecting the Fly icon, the mission planning screen will appear, seen below.

Example Screenshot of Mission Planning Page

Important Flight Parameters

To modify important flight parameters for mission, select the "IFT" icon, select "Vehicle Setup", the "Parameters" tab, then search for the parameter in the white search bar.

Parameter	Function	Default Value
WPNAV_SPEED	Adjusts flight speed of automated mission	600 (cm/s)
WP_YAW_BEHAVIOR	Adjusts direction vehicle faces between waypoints in mission	Face Next Waypoint

Example Mission

The following procedure describes how to plan a basic mission. There are different methods for planning a mission; the basic procedure described below illustrates some of the tools used for planning a mission.

NOTE:

1. In the following procedure, “select” means to tap (if using a touch screen), or mouse click (if using a mouse).

2. IGC does not need to be connected to the aircraft to plan a mission. However, IGC must be connected to the aircraft to upload the mission.

STEP	ACTION
1	In the Plan tab, be sure to clear an existing mission plan before creating a new one. In this example we will clear the mission by first selecting "File" on the left side of the screen, then "Clear".
2	A pop-up will appear asking if you'd like to remove the current mission. Select "Yes".
3	For the purposes of this example we will create a Survey Mission, the most common automated mission flown on IFT aircraft. To start a new mission plan, select "File", then select "Survey".
4	Next, check the mission settings by selecting "Mission Start". Enter the desired altitude above takeoff location to fly the mission. This will automatically set the altitude of the rest of the mission.
5	Select "Survey", then "Basic" to create a basic polygon to build the mission outline.
6	A survey area will be shown. Adjust the size as needed by dragging the white vertices and verify the survey altitude to ensure the drone flies high enough during the survey. If planning to stitch images, also check the overlap percentages on the right. Selecting the “plus” icons between allows you to add vertices to the survey shape.
7	Select the camera tab under "Survey", and select a camera profile. For this example, we will be using the Sony LR1 with a 35mm lens ("ILX-LR1 35mm"). Note: "Custom Camera" allows input of sensor size in mm, focal length of lens, and resolution of resulting image for any camera.
8	At this point, the takeoff and survey altitudes have been set. Survey coverage and camera settings are also configured. The final step in mission planning is to upload the mission to the drone. Ensure the drone is powered on and connected. Then select “Upload” at the top of the screen.
9	Wait for the top of the screen to display “Done”. After uploading a mission, you can see details of the mission in the Mission Command List, on the right side of the screen. To see details about individual events in the mission, select an event, such as a Waypoint, and details about that event appear below it.
10	Switch to the flight screen by selecting “Fly” on the left side. Confirm the status reads “Ready to Fly” in the top left. Complete final pre-arm checks: ensure the landing gear is securely mounted, propellers are undamaged and unfolded, arms are fully extended and locked into place, and motors can spin freely. Once all checks pass, slide the arrow to the right to autonomously take off and begin the mission.

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