Reflex Features
The Reflex offers various essential features for safe and effective flight operations, and new features are continuously developed and released through incremental updates. These include flight modes (piloted as well as autonomous), flight assist features, and flight safety features. If you have a request for a specific feature, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Control Algorithms
The Reflex offers two control algorithms: INDI (requires motor RPM feedback) and PID. This redundancy in control architecture ensures enhanced reliability and stability during flight operations.
Piloted Flight Modes
The Reflex supports three remote-controlled, or piloted, flight modes: Attitude Mode, Altitude Mode, and Position Mode. Of these, attitude mode provides the highest degree of manual control, while position mode is the most assisted flight mode. The stick inputs as well as their corresponding responses in each mode are detailed in the tables below.
Attitude Mode
| RC Channels | Command |
|---|---|
| roll | Desired roll angle of the drone |
| pitch | Desired pitch angle of the drone |
| yaw | Desired yaw rate of the drone |
| throttle | Desired throttle value, where the drone climbs if the value is greater than hover throttle |
Altitude Mode
| RC Channels | Command |
|---|---|
| roll | Desired roll angle of the drone |
| pitch | Desired pitch angle of the drone |
| yaw | Desired yaw rate of the drone |
| throttle | Desired upwards speed of the drone with altitude hold when stick is central |
Position Mode
| RC Channels | Command |
|---|---|
| roll | Desired lateral speed in roll direction with position hold when stick is central |
| pitch | Desired lateral speed in pitch direction with position hold when stick is central |
| yaw | Desired yaw rate with heading hold when stick is central |
| throttle | Desired upwards speed of the drone with altitude hold when stick is central |
Automated Flight Modes
The Reflex provides several automated modes that do not require the pilot to actively control the sticks. These automated modes and their functions are provided below.
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Mission Mode: This is an autonomous flight mode that adheres to a pre-defined mission path, typically consisting of a series of waypoints and/or maneuvers.
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Land Mode: This mode initiates a vertical descent of the drone at the location where the mode was activated and allows the drone to land from there.
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Takeoff Mode: This mode initiates a vertical ascent at the current location to a predefined takeoff altitude relative to the home location while maintaining its lateral position. It holds its position after reaching the takeoff altitude.
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Return to Launch Mode: This mode commands the drone to fly back to its home location and land, following a path defined by the user's configuration.
Flight Assist Features
These are features which were implemented to assist the pilot with controls during various flight stages such as landing, takeoff, hover, etc.
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Bank Angle Protection: Bank angle protection is a feature that helps prevent a drone from rolling or tilting too far to one side during flight very close to ground. It works by limiting the maximum angle at which the drone can bank as a function of height above ground, in order to prevent the drone from entering a potentially dangerous or unstable flight state.
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Takeoff and Landing Detector: This feature enables the drone to detect when it has taken off and landed, allowing it to automatically disarm after landing or if it fails to take off after arming.
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Terrain Hold: The terrain hold feature allows the drone to maintain a constant altitude above the ground when holding in Position, Hold, and Takeoff modes.
Safety Features
These are a list of features on the Reflex that are executed as a safety precaution in case of situations which may potentially cause harm or damage to the drone or others.
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Remote Control Loss: The RC loss feature is a safety mechanism that helps prevent the drone from flying out of control in the event of a lost connection between the drone and the remote controller (RC). When this feature is activated, the drone will automatically execute a pre-defined emergency procedure as configured by the user.
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Battery Low: The low battery safety feature allows the drone to automatically execute an emergency procedure when the battery level drops to a critically low level.
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Sensor Loss: The Reflex is designed to handle in-flight sensor loss by automatically switching flight modes based on available sensors.
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Takeoff Attitude Protection: Takeoff attitude protection is a safety mechanism that shuts down the drone automatically if it senses excessive bank angles immediately before takeoff. This may suggest that the motors are connected in the wrong configuration, causing it to rotate in the opposite direction.
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Geofence: The geofence is a safety feature that prevents the drone from flying into dangerous or restricted airspace by defining a virtual boundary. At present, the Reflex permits the use of a cylindrical geofence centred around the home location.