How do drones in drone shows manage to calibrate their positions so precisely?

Question

Surely they can’t be using GPS for positions just a few feet apart.

Also, how quickly can they respond to wind and such?

In: 699

Answer 1

GPS and RTK can be pretty precise. Add in Inertial Reference too and you can get your actual position on all axes without issue. For instance for most commercial flights, GPS is used to precisely locate the plane on the ground. It does’t move during this to get it truly calibrated. From there it uses it’s gyros and accelerometers to then determine movement in the atmosphere. The GPS is still there as a “check” in a way to verify it’s accurate. There’s also always more than one IRS system as well so it can cross check eachother. For instance an Airbus A320 has 3 of them.