Waypoints too close

General Discussion
1

Hi,
I’m working on a project where I need to capture a large number of 180° panoramas to represent views from proposed apartment buildings. To ensure proper stitching with good overlap, I need to take 20 photos per panorama (4 rows by 5 columns).

I’ve already tried two methods, but neither worked reliably:

Single Waypoint with Multiple Actions: I created a mission where the drone flies to a specific point and executes a series of actions: “rotate aircraft”, “tilt camera”, and so on. This didn’t work—likely because there were too many actions assigned to a single waypoint.

Multiple Waypoints with Varying Headings: I defined 5 waypoints at the same coordinates but with different headings, and added 4 camera tilt actions per point. The problem here is that waypoints placed so close together cause issues with mission execution. (I get a message: “Waypoints too close”)

Do you have any ideas on how to overcome this?
One workaround could be to move the drone slightly after capturing each column, then return to the original spot with a different heading to capture the next column. However, this would significantly increase the mission time with a lot of unnecessary drone movement. Since I need to capture about 150 panoramas, every second counts.

Any other suggestions for optimizing this process?

2

One possibility:
Move waypoints 2 and 4 slightly and capture the column of images.
In other words, move back and forth taking pictures after a slight move.
The stitching of images wont be affected by a small movement of the drone.

3

Thanks, Sam. I placed “dummy” waypoints 1 meter away and then returned to the original location. That workaround does the job, but I still don’t understand why two waypoints can’t occupy the same coordinates — it feels like an unreasonable limitation.

I have another issue, though: I set the mission to capture a row of images with the camera tilted upwards at 20°, but the drone skips those and only takes photos at horizontal and downward angles. I’m using a Mavic 2 Pro, which supports a tilt range from +30° to -90°, so 20° upward should definitely be within its capability. Any idea why?

4

There are two limitations:

  1. DJI drones require a 0.5m in either height or horizontal positioning between adjacent waypoints.
  2. Litchi requires that there is a minimum of 0.6m three-dimensionally between adjacent waypoints.

I have created two different methods for creating 360 degree panoramas using waypoint missions:

  1. I place dummy waypionts between the waypoints that capture the photos.
  2. I create a small circular path using the minimum distance between waypoints where photos are captured at each waypoint.

These utilities can be found on my web site:

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5

Hi Wes, thank you for your reply. I saw utilities on your webpage, they are very helpufull, thanks! I managed to overcome most of the issues with dummy points. However my Mavic 2 Pro still struggles to get any shots with the positive camera angle - those actions are ignored during mission flight.

6

Here is some info ftom another topic

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