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If I just have a crazyflie without any other deck or positioning equipment, what kind of autonomous flight can I achieve? if any?

Couldn't I in tell the crazyflie to just accelerate at a specified power in some direction for some specified period of time? As opposed to telling it to go 1 meter in some direction?

Hi!

Unfortunately it is not possible to do controlled autonomous flight without positioning support. In theory it is possible to use the IMU (gyros and accelerometers) only to keep track of the relative position but there are some complications in the real world. The main problems are that the type of IMUs (small) that are used on the CF are too noisy and that the platform is small and light weight which makes vibrations from the motors travel to the IMU and cause even more noise. If you are lucky, have good motors and well balanced propellers it might be possible to hover for a few seconds, but in most cases the CF will drift away.

Thank you! I appreciate the informative answer kristoffer. I'll explore other options.