Dome inspection drone mission template

Geometry, from the planner

Planned by OpenDroneKit with these inputs: 40 m diameter dome footprint, radius 20 m, minimum altitude lowered to 5 m. The drawing is the planner’s actual output for that test site in Aukerman Park, Ohio, not an illustration. The plan has 1312 waypoints; every point is counted above and an even subset is drawn.

Planner output · 1312 waypoints (400 drawn)Local metres · north up

Plan · blue: flight path · ring: first waypoint · dashed: drawn area · shaded: structure

Elevation, looking north · x: east–west position (m), y: altitude above take-off (m) · 5–28 m · gimbal -90° to -11.7°

How is the dome mission laid out?

At elevation angle e up a dome of radius R the surface sits at radius R cos e and height R sin e; each ring is that point offset outward along the normal by the stand-off. The stand-off therefore holds at every ring, not only the widest.

The gimbal points along the same normal: level at the equator, straight down at the crown. Rings are spaced along the meridian by the side-overlap spacing; points around each ring by the forward-overlap spacing.

Also accepted by the planner as: dome, silo.

Inputs

Parameter	Meaning	Default
`altitude_m`	Flight altitude in metres, relative to the take-off point unless an AMSL terrain model is loaded	60
`front_overlap_pct`	Forward overlap between consecutive photos; with the camera footprint it sets the capture spacing	80
`side_overlap_pct`	Overlap between neighbouring lines or rows; with the camera footprint it sets the line spacing	70
`speed_m_s`	Planned cruise speed, written to every export	5
`camera`	Camera profile used for footprint and ground-sample-distance estimates	mavic2pro
`gimbal_tilt_deg`	Camera pitch; left blank, the template's own default is used	-90
`dome_radius_m`	Dome radius (defaults to the equal-area radius of the drawn outline)	—
`dome_base_altitude_m`	Height of the dome's base	0
`facade_standoff_m`	Distance from the wall (falls back to 8 m when unset)	—

Footprint, line spacing and GSD come from the camera profile; the GSD calculator uses the same formulas.

What survives each export?

QGroundControl .plan and .waypoints: every point carries a DO_MOUNT_CONTROL gimbal command; all points are NAV_WAYPOINT; 1312 of 1312 have a CONDITION_YAW heading lock; 1312 DO_DIGICAM_CONTROL captures.
DJI WPML .kmz: gimbalRotate on every waypoint; heading-locked points use smoothTransition; takePhoto at capture points; speed limited to 1-15 m/s.
Litchi CSV: 1312 waypoints exceed the exporter's 99-waypoint split, so the export is written as 14 consecutive files, each starting where the previous one ended.

Each format has known issues, listed on its page: QGC .plan · .waypoints · DJI WPML · Litchi CSV.

Limits

Bands of the dome below the minimum altitude cannot be flown at the stand-off; the plan photographs them from the minimum altitude at an angle and says so in a warning.
Planned without a terrain model the plan assumes flat ground at the launch elevation, and it says so in a warning.
Not flight-tested on an aircraft as part of these pages; the numbers above are the planner’s estimates.

Source and tests

Compiled by _compile_dome_inspection_primitive in mission/planner.py. The function is on public main (1ef6351); this drawing was planned with the development branch (0ae10e4), whose planner is ahead of main.

Tests in the development branch that exercise it:

tests/test_dome_and_box_missions.py
tests/test_exported_headings_face_the_subject.py
tests/test_mission_exports_carry_the_plan.py
tests/test_structure_coverage_is_stated.py
tests/test_template_inventory_is_derived.py

Camera aimed at a wall, a box, a tower, a turbine or a dome, from a stand-off distance.

Facade: Columns and rows of photos across one wall, at stand-off, camera level and facing the wall.
Facade mapping: A denser facade capture for photogrammetric 3D models of a wall.
Multi-facade: A facade pass on every wall of a building, each wall with its own stand-off, heights and spacing.
Box: A rectangular circuit around a building at stand-off, camera aimed at the building's centre.
Tower: Stacked rings around a tower or mast, each ring photographing the section beside it.
Wind turbine: Tower, nacelle and both faces of each blade of a parked wind turbine.

All 22 templates: mission templates · mission planning.