360° Panorama Creator Instructions BETA!!!

Instructions

This application will convert a series of Litchi waypoints Litchi mission CSV file containing the instructions to generate 360° panoramas centered on those Litchi waypoints.

Create one or more waypoints using Litchi's Mission Hub
1. Specify an appropriate height for each of the waypoints.
2. Export these waypoints as a CSV file.
In page one of 360 Panorama Creator:
1. Select the drone type that will be used to fly the mission. Each drone has a different field of view (FOV). This value is necessary in order to determine the number of photos required.
2. Litchi is able to store and execute up to 15 camera actions per waypoint. DJI Fly is not able to do the same. If it will be desired to convert this partial panorama mission to a DJI Fly mission, select the "Enable DJI Fly Compatibility" checkbox. This will create more waypoints, but will make the mission flyable with DJI Fly.
3. Select the desired horizontal and vertical image overlaps.
4. Select the CSV file containing the waypoints from Litchi's Mission Hub.
5. Select the "Generate 360 Panorama Waypoint Mission for Litchi" button.
In page two of 360 Panorama Creator:
1. Review the parameters and calculations.
2. Based on the type of drone and the minimum overlaps requested, both the headings and gimbal pitch angles will be computed to capture the 360° panorama component photos. The actual overlaps (which are generally greater than the minimums requested) will be computed. Review these headings and angles.
3. Download the Litchi csv file.
Optionally, download the kml preview file for Google Earth Pro. This will allow one to preview each of the 360° panorama component photo views in Google Earth Pro.
In Litchi's Mission Hub:
1. Use the Missions menu to import the csv file created by 360° Panorama Creator.
2. The imported mission will have a cluster of "dummy" waypoints around each photo-capture waypoint as shown in the image below.
  The component photos must be captured within the following constraints:
  - A maximum of 15 camera actions can be defined at each waypoint.
  - The "Tilt Camera" camera action does not accept positive pitch angles.
  - Sequential waypoints must be separated by at least 0.6 meters.
  As a result, there will be several "dummy" waypoints around each photo-capture waypoint location.
3. IMPORTANT: Configure the following mission parameters:
  - Mission Settings: Heading Mode: Custom (WD)
  - Mission Settings: Path Mode: Straight Lines
  - Mission Settings: Cruising Speed: ~10mph (16km/h)
  - Litchi App Settings: Gimbal Extension (+30°): On (NOTE: This setting defaults to "Off" every time you start the Litchi app with some drones.)
4. Go capture some 360° panorama photos!
Manually stich the photos together to create a 360° panorama.
- There are many stiching programs available.
- I have used Autopano Giga with success.

This web applcation will allow one to upload a CSV file containing a simple waypoint mission (maximum of 10 waypoints). It will then generate a new Litchi mission (CSV file) with the necessary waypoints and camera actions to capture photos that can be used to create a 360° panorama at each of the waypoints in the original, uploaded mission.

The orientation of photos captured in row-major order at each waypoint will be computed based on:

The camera field of view (FOV)
The requested horizontal and vertical overlap percentage

Why row-major? Because the "Tilt Camera" waypoint action does not accept positive gimbal pitch values. Therefore, it becomes necessary to use the "Interpolate" method to specify a positive gimbal pitch angle and then capture a complete row of photos.

After creating this new CSV file, import it as a new mission configured with the following settings:

Heading Mode: Custom (WD)
Path Mode: Straight Lines
Gimbal Extension (+30°): On (Litchi app settings)

Drone:

Enable DJI Fly Compatibility:

Limit to one photo per waypoint for conversion to DJI Fly mission. This will increase the number of dummy waypoints. (Experimental. See below.)

Minimum Horizontal overlap:

Minimum Vertical overlap:

Litchi CSV File Upload:

Choose file to upload

About DJI Fly Compatibility

DJI's implementation of waypoints in DJI Fly does not appear to support multiple actions per waypoint despite the fact that the WPML language does support multiple actions. In Litchi, it is possible to assign up to 15 actions per waypoint. For example, in Litchi, one can define these actions at one waypoint:

Rotate aircraft to 0 degrees
Take photo
Rotate aircraft to 45 degrees
Take photo
Rotate aircraft to 90 degrees
Take photo
Rotate aircraft to 135 degrees
Take photo
etc.

When converting such a mission into WPML, a series of actions, such as those displayed above, can be defined for a given waypoint and those actions can be configured to be executed sequentially. However, it has been reported that those actions are either not completely executed or not executed at all. The exact behavior is unknown to me.

If you are willing to test this, I would be interested in knowing exactly how a DJI Fly drone handles these actions. I would also be interested in knowing whether or not a DJI Fly drone can execute a mission with sequential waypoints sharing the exact same GPS coordinates. If you are good with Excel, you could take a simple Litchi mission and duplicate a waypoint several times and change only the heading, then convert it to a DJI Fly mission. It would be interesting to hear how DJI Fly handles such a mission.