How to capture 360-degree panoramas at waypoints

Tools, Addons & Guides
#1

I often see people asking this question: “Can I fly to a waypoint and then capture a 360-degree panorama?”

Litchi may provide this feature at some point in the future but it is not available today. There is a “Panorama Preset” as a camera action, however, this preset captures only one row of photos. So, depending on what you require, this may or may not work for you.

To make the capturing of a 360-degree panorama at a waypoint available now, I have created a web application that can be used to create a Litchi mission to capture 22 photos at each defined waypoint that can be stitched into 360-degree panoramas.

Capture
Capture1446×934 184 KB

My solution does include some idiosyncrasies due to constraints of Litchi waypoint missions. These constraints include:

  1. The “Tilt Camera” waypoint action does not allow positive gimbal pitch angles.
  2. No two adjacent waypoints can share the same coordinates.
  3. A maximum of 15 camera actions can be configured per waypoint.

To use this software, simply create a Litchi mission with one or more waypoints (maximum of 10) where the height of each waypoint specifies the height at which each 360-degree panorama is to be captured. Export the CSV file from Litchi’s Mission Hub and use it as an input to my web application. The default gimbal pitch angles used are the same as those used in Litchi’s auto-panorama function. The output of my web application should then be imported back into Litchi’s Mission Hub as a new mission.

Full instructions and details can be found within this web application.

I have tested these panorama missions with success on:

  • A DJI Go drone
  • A DJI Go4 drone
  • A DJI Fly drone
7 Likes
Auto Pano within Waypoint Mission
#2

Hi @wesbarris

You have created yet another useful tool!
Thanks for that.

Just an observation:
The litchi app accepts positive gimbal tilt angles in waypoint actions, the mission hub does not.

In your instructions, parts 1-d & 1-e are the same (Save this mission (optional)).

Here’s a (useful) list you may include:

Controllable Gimbal Tilt Angles:
Phantom 3 -90° to 30°
Phantom 4 -90° to 30°
Mavic Pro -90° to 30°
Spark -85° to 0°
Mavic Air -90° to 17°
Mavic 2 -90° to 30°
Mavic Mini(SE) -90° to 20°
Mavic Air 2 -90° to 24°
Mini 2 -90° to 20°
Air 2S -90° to 24°
Mavic 3 -90° to 35°
Mini 3 Pro -90° to 60°

2 Likes
#3

Thanks Yordie,

I have made the correction and added the tilt angles you supplied.

I did find a couple anomalies when testing. When set to +20 degrees, my Phantom 3 Standard only tilted to +19 degrees. When set to +20 degrees, my Mavic 2 Zoom only tilted to +10 degrees. Even so, I was able to create good panoramas from both.

1 Like
#4

I have added an option to this web application which will allow one to save, as an image, each of the component views that make up the panorama.

I am not sure how useful this will be and it does require some manual steps. However, with this new addition, you will be able to create a panorama mission then save an image for each of the component images, all from Google Earth Pro.

This way, one can create a complete 360-degree panorama prior to flying the mission with your drone.

#5

Thanks very much for this. There was a time when Litchi would allow you to save a panorama mission so that you could fly it multiple times. I don’t know what happened to it but it has forced me to fly a waypoint mission and then switch to pano mode each time. I’m currently working a weekly construction progression gig for a solar farm with an eBeeX and the client also wants repeatable panos from various locations each week as well. This is going to be a huge help. $10 donation sent as a small token of my gratitude.