Fleet and missions

The Fleet panel shows aircraft, while Assets organizes them into sites and flights. A flight is an organizational group; a mission is the work an aircraft is assigned to perform.

Plan a mission

Create a mission from the planning controls, Missions panel, or map context menu. Choose the mission kind, define its route or orbit, set altitude, speed in m/s, and looping behavior, then save it. Markings such as areas of interest and no-fly zones provide spatial context alongside the route.

Speed applies to each new route command; for an orbit it applies to both entry and circling. Leave it blank for the aircraft defaults. Autel accepts whole numbers from 1–15 m/s, with defaults of 5 m/s for fly-to and orbit entry and 2 m/s for circling. It sends a maximum fly-to speed, so the aircraft may fly more slowly. Unsupported speeds fail the command instead of being rounded. Simulated aircraft use their model’s cruise and orbit defaults when speed is blank; simulated fixed-wing aircraft require at least 16 m/s when a speed is specified. Supervised runs keep the speed reviewed at start; edits apply to future runs. Legacy simulator tasking uses edits for subsequently issued goals. Speed editing is not a live control for a command already in flight.

Mission edits are shared Mainframe documents. If someone else changes the same revision first, refresh the document and review their changes before saving again.

Assign and dispatch

Select an available aircraft and use its tasking controls to assign or dispatch the mission. Mainframe checks access and command availability, then its tasking runner follows the route by sending flight commands to the module.

Watch tasking phase, flight state, battery, and command events together. An accepted dispatch does not mean the aircraft is already airborne. A mission assignment can persist while an aircraft is moving, being manually supervised, or returning; the actual state tells you what it is doing.

Supervised Autel missions

Select the aircraft, open Control, and take control. In Supervised mission, select a saved waypoint mission, review it on the map, and choose the finish action: Hold position, Return home and land, or Land at the last waypoint. From the ground, Review launch and mission includes takeoff to the route height. From a stationary hover, Review and start mission begins the route. The confirmation shows speed, height and finish behavior before sending a command.

The route flies once, regardless of its reusable loop setting; a perimeter closes back to its first point. Each waypoint waits for command completion plus fresh position, height and speed confirmation. Return or land completes the mission only after confirmed touchdown. An active run keeps its reviewed plan when someone edits the mission document.

This version supports multirotor waypoint missions with a provider that explicitly enables them. Autel requires a configured takeoff-relative height reference. Admission requires fresh healthy telemetry, stationary flight or a grounded launch, at least 50% battery, 20–120 m height above takeoff, and whole-number speeds of 1–15 m/s. The reviewed plan is limited to 200 points and an estimated 10 minutes; a reported endurance value must also cover a two-minute reserve. A blank speed resolves to 5 m/s for a supervised run. Overwatch is not admitted yet.

Keep the current control lease and RC available throughout. Pause mission requests Hold; Resume mission first confirms Hold, then continues the saved route. Cancel mission confirms Hold before clearing the run, or clears it directly when fresh ground state is already confirmed. RC takeoff/return/landing modes may prevent Hold; use the RC and reconcile before recovery. Losing the lease, stale telemetry, manual input or a restart stops progression and requires explicit resume. An unresolved run means the aircraft’s motion is unconfirmed, not that it has stopped. Known flight failure, a 30-second stall or battery below 30% requests one Hold when current telemetry and authority permit it; a failed stop is never automatically retried.

The existing Send here remains a direct operator command. Legacy native Assign and launch is refused: use the reviewed supervised controls. Running without the browser’s lease, uploading a route for completion without Mainframe, POI overwatch and automatic relaunch are separate capabilities. The code requires aircraft acceptance on the exact hardware and firmware before operational use.

Continuous staging operation

The staging seed provides four short patrols near the virtual Rūda base and ten aircraft at staggered charge levels. Auto-operator waits for an uncovered mission, then selects an eligible charged aircraft. Its staging thresholds are 85% for a docked aircraft and 90% for a charging aircraft.

The simulator models battery drain, return-to-base behavior, landing, and charging. Mainframe clears completed return assignments so aircraft can become eligible again. The six spare aircraft provide room for that cycle while four missions are active.

Inspect battery cycles and covered mission counts in Grafana. If coverage remains missing, check the grace period, serial selection, battery thresholds, manual control, stale telemetry, and pending proposals. Real aircraft are outside the staging auto-operator’s provider/serial selection.

Retire and move aircraft

Use supported Assets or Fleet actions to change an aircraft’s flight or decommission it. Providers may require it to be docked first. Retirement preserves its identity for history; it is different from erasing recorded data.