A dedicated VTOL Mode

[Pairan]

Current Behavior

As by now we can make VTOL happen by mixing two profiles with a transition.

Desired Behavior

Perhaps it would be good to have dedicatd profile, that deals with the VTOL and all the related magic

Suggested Solution

The main focus of the profile would be setting up everything around the VTOL process and making it easy to set up

Who does this impact? Who is this for?

For those, who want to build VTOL setups but dont feel the desire to start over in Ardupilot setups

I don't know if the current state of development or INAV is able include such a "profile" or setup - but I thought this was worth as request

[kasatka60]

What for?

[Sibre3]

@Pairan It still requires a lot of work before it gets to this point. Check this out #11292
However the idea has merit. It might make setup easier.

[sensei-hacker]

This might be useful. What would the VTOL profile do differently than existing profiles?

A terminology note since the title says mode and the description says profile:

Flight modes decide how RC sticks map to movements of the aircraft.
Acro/Rate mode: sticks control the rate of rotation
Angle mode: sticks control the angle (attitude) of the craft
Position mode: sticks control the location of the craft
Cruise mode: Sticks control the direction of motion and the altitude

Profiles specify how demanded motions map to actuators such as servos and motors.
Quad profile: pitch forward by rear motors spin up to pitch forward, front motors spin down to drop the nose
FW profile: Pitch down by moving the elevator servo

[Pairan]

Thanks all of you for the response - happy to get your reactions.

@kasatka60 : for an easier setup and perhaps better/seamless integration instead of building a config on two control/mixer profiles

@Sibre3 : I agree ... there is much to be considered and coded yet as mentioned above pulling the to configs into one with the transition stuff in focus might open up for more/better integration of features (eg smother/better transitions/handling)

@sensei-hacker : you are right - I'm jumping a bit in my terminology ... by now we have the two profiles which basically will do for the VTOL (quad/tri and tailsitter). The params on that are a giving more or less good results (for me the more smoother transitions will cause my T1 to do STRANGE things compared to the almost binary switch of the mixer profiles).

The VTOL profile should be something that (already stated above) takes the focus on the transition from mixer A and then smoothly converts to Mixer B. I know thats what we currently have. But for me this is hard to configure the right way. I have to maintain both mixer/control profiles (and thats certainly nothing that will change as we will alway need something like mixer a and mixer b) and hope it will do as I would assume it to.
As INAV already offered Quad/Tri-copter mixers along with the Fixed-Wing stuff the mix config have the main focus so far. But then the VTOL thing came up and we kindly got the transition to tape the mixers together. Maybe it would be an idea to think the other way around: First we think about the transition and all of its caveats and after that make our minds on how we attached the mixers to that "interface" where a needs to blend smoothly/safe and controlled to b.

I feel this is the main idea behind this topic: INAV has proven it can do VTOL! Perhaps we can get it better by adjusting the focus

[kasatka60]

I'm not good at programming, but probably need to radically change the code here.