Hello all,

  I am flying a Matrice 100 with guidance indoors and have a question that is burning up my brain. Lets say I want to fly straight up an elevator shaft. Obviously there would be no GPS signal so I would be relying entirely on the guidance sensors and my ability to fly. Lets say that the shaft is 10ft across in all directions. Lets also say that I have the obstacle avoidance parameters set to 4ft. this woud give me about 2ft of "wiggle room" directly in the center of the shaft. Am I correct in assuming that when I start to ascend, the guidance system will keep me "centered" and off the walls of the shaft? I have equipped the aircraft with onboard lighting oriented in all directions to give the vision sensors plenty of light.

The next part of my question is: What happens when I reach an altitude where the bottom sensors no longer register the floor? Will it continue to function for obstacle avoidance and allow me to ascend further or just stop right there or switch to atti mode on its own and disable the guidance system? Also, what would happen in a failsafe situation if I have it set to either "Hover" or "Land"? Would the Guidance sensors remain active, allowing it to stay centered in the shaft as it decends?

I hope I am being clear and would very much appreciate the help of this community of big brains on these questions.

I believe horizontal Guidance features remain fully active when the down-pointing sensor rises more than 20 feet above the ground.  If you fly indoors under close conditions, then suggest using prop-guards as added protection.

Then what are you going to do if the elevator has a central lift or safety cable?

Personally, I'd drop a 360 degree camera via a cable on a pole from highest point rather than flying a drone in it.  Some ductwork inspection camera setups might work too.

I used an elevator shaft as an example to give a clear picture without muddying up the waters. I fly in caverns underground and one of the use cases is flying straight up into vertical shafts for inspection purposes so the cable is not present. I have seen posts regarding the Mavic and how it just stops at it's downward facing sensor limit and this made me start thinking about what Guidance might do in that situation. I really hope that it stays in P-Opti mode and keeps the other sensors active. It would suck if it dropped into Atti because the barometer would kick in and there are air pressure fluctuations down there that cause some unwanted rising and dropping when the barometer tries to hold altitude.
Prop guards are standard issue even when I have guidance attached. Even had custom prop guards 3D printed that are less likely to get caught on the walls while traveling vertically! The guidance specs show a sensor range of 20m so I guess I need to find some obstruction higher than 65ft and take it up there for testing.

If possible to get pemission, perhaps you could try an atrium in a large hotel (or similar building) as some are at least 10 stories...

You want to double check page 24 to make sure you are not in an environment where surface is an issue: http://download.dji-innovations. ... _Manual_en_V1.6.pdf

This sounds like tricky piloting skills so not sure if this, in my opinion, is advisable. Make sure you have everything calibrated.

I use an Osmo, the mountain bike mount and some supplemental lighting for lift shaft inspections.