Ardupilot SOAR - Full automatic thermal hunting (dynamic soaring)

The autonomous soaring functionality in ArduPilot allows the glider to respond to rising air current (thermals) in order to extend endurance and gain altitude with minimal use of the motor (soaring).

Guide to Ardupilot Soar: https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/soaring.html
Telemetry data overlay: http://www.dashware.net/
Video recorded with "Foxeer Legend 1".

Index:

00:00 Takeoff (MANUAL flight mode)
01:59 Manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
02:23 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
02:54 Not climbing...
03:17 Manual switch to FBWA
05:12 Manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
05:21 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
05:45 Manual switch to MANUAL flight mode
05:51 Manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
06:22 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
06:52 Not climbing...
06:57 Thermal ended, the AP automatically restoring FBWB towards the home
07:09 Automatically forcing RTL due to minimum height reached (50 meters)
07:11 Manual switch to MANUAL flight mode
07:44 Manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
07:55 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
08:05 Manual switch to FBWA, I leave the commands to a friend while I change some parameters through telemetry (you can see how it gives dry ALE commands but the glider is in thermal and is gaining altitude)
10:08 The remote control returns to my hands, manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
10:52 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
11:21 Not climbing...
11:29 Thermal ended, the AP automatically restoring FBWB towards the home
11:40 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
12:37 Reached upper altitude (too high), automatically restoring FBWB
12:46 The glider continues to gain altitude in FBWB, that's awesome but dangerous
13:10 Manual switch to MANUAL flight mode, to bring down the glider I'm forced to fly it inverted having no brakes
14:05 Return in level flight
14:09 Manual switch to FBWB for thermal hunting
14:21 Thermal detected, the AP automatically switch to LOITER
15:05 Thermal ended, the AP automatically restoring FBWB towards the home
15:21 Until the end of the video there are other uninteresting thermal hunting attempts
31:27 Landing

Special thanks to Samuel Tabor and Tom Pittenger!

Marco (Ardupilot Dev Team)

Видео Ardupilot SOAR - Full automatic thermal hunting (dynamic soaring) канала Marco Robustini