AI Drones use too much fuel.

[Grathagis]

Is there a mod or other way to have AI use their fuel more efficiently?
I noticed drones tend to use their thrusters way too much. I feel like I am being forced to equip small grid drones with large hydrogen fuel tanks as small tanks run out way too fast. Space drones are bad but in gravity they are even worse.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, my Engineer solution for that problem was to use Atmos thrusters for planet Drones and ion thrusters for space Drones.

Keep in mind the following :

-> Battery and Hydrogen = Minutes of power and we must build Recharging stations and Gas stations where it is needed.

-> Reactor with Uranium = Can give Years of power and never need to be recharged.

-> The best Drones are the ones able to stop from 100m/s to 0m/s in 4 seconds so the most important thrusters are Backward and Upward.


EDIT
Just a bit of Uranium can give months of power.

[Dan2D3D]

I will add :

No need to build Recharging station / Gas stations and no need to setup blocks with actions to return to recharging station when we use Nuclear Drones.

Nuclear Drones = Way less blocks and less work needed.

[Grathagis]

I am working on a drone to transport hydrogen fuel from Europa to a space station. So Ion thrusters and atmospheric thrusters won't cut it. And I am playing in survival where uranium is rare to come by.
If I fly myself I use 5-10% of my fuel lifting up into orbit and coasting to my station. The AI uses at least 90% and in some cases won't reach the station.

[Dan2D3D]

I see, so the Engineer solution will be to add more Hydro tanks, well the needed for at least a 2 way trip.

OR
A player may know a Mod for you and will post in to share.

+
A lot of Uranium can be found around all Moons and Planets, all 3 moons have +20 Uranium asteroids around them and you will never have power problems with just a few complete sphere of Uranium, and way way more can be found around all planets.

[Dan2D3D]

Oh! You could combine all thrusters on your Cargo Drone, you will only need Hydrogen to exit the Moon Gravity (2 minutes Max), edited

[Dan2D3D]

Info +

I know it takes time to explore the asteroids around Moons and Planets but keep in mind ores are at the same GPS coords in all available premade worlds so we just have to explore one time to know the RIch ore spots of the game.

+
A kind player shared Blueprinted LCDs with Uranium asteroids around all Planets and Moons of the sandbox world named "Star System"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2347992479

Edit
Earth Moon Uranium asteroids for example :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360594984

[DivineEvil]

I guess you can at least partially work around this by controlling the ascend using Event Controllers, by firing uplift thrusters until max speed is reached, then checking for a moment when Natural Gravity becomes zero and only then switching to AI controls to dock to the station. This way the drone won't burn any fuel on redundant adjustments.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

If you want a hyperefficient automated launch to orbit, you'll have to construct a pulse drive controller yourself, shouldn't be too hard, use AI blocks for the parts they handle well, design gizmos for the parts they don't.

[Dan2D3D]

I am sure it's doable with just a bit of Hydrogen and may use parachute for the landing if not enough Hydrogen for a 2 way trip.

[Dan2D3D]

My small block Fighter got all thrusters in without any hydro tank but 6 O2/H2 Gens full of ice for almost 3 way trip made for Earth planet to space so less ice needed on Moons :
(edited)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3365781501
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3365789183

EDIT
Ice fueled setup = 1 O2/H2 Gen for 2 small Hydro thrsuters.

+
Heavier when exiting the Moon because full of ice and the ship become light once no more ice so it will do a better landing using Atmos thrusters when it returns to Europa station.

[Dan2D3D]

Grathagis, have you tried with the Remote Control block ?

May be better, well it should work fine if they fixed the "one way" option :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCgou-HMmug

[CJM]

Originally posted by DivineEvil:

I guess you can at least partially work around this by controlling the ascend using Event Controllers, by firing uplift thrusters until max speed is reached, then checking for a moment when Natural Gravity becomes zero

I've been considering using a series of Event Controllers on a testbed "Space Shuttle" project I've got.

Currently, I can propel a 600 ton "shuttle" from Earth to space on two small hydrogen tanks with twelve small grid hydrogen thrusters.

I manually set the thrust overrides via the toolbar, to keep the thruster output as low as necessary, to maintain near 100m/s.

If I could do this with Event Controllers, based on calculated weight and level of "G" gravity, I could possibly automate lift off and re-entry.

I'm thinking daisy chained event controllers that automatically switch over from one to the next, switching Event Controllers on and off in the chain as gravity changes.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

Is there a mod or other way to have AI use their fuel more efficiently?
I noticed drones tend to use their thrusters way too much. I feel like I am being forced to equip small grid drones with large hydrogen fuel tanks as small tanks run out way too fast. Space drones are bad but in gravity they are even worse.

Yeah it's ridiculous. In space I set a timer to turn off the thrusters after a period of time, which allows the AI to get the ship on course. Another timer will reactivate them when they are getting close to the target. They "coast" the long distances between the two, and this works pretty good, though it takes some trial and error.

In gravity, well hopefully you can use atmo thrusters with a small reactor, so it isn't such a big deal.

Whoever wrote the code for the autopilot doesn't understand the concept of "hunting", which is a fundamental concept in any IRL autopilot, servo mechanism, etc. I feel like this code was very much rushed and never revisited.

[Kobeni]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

I am working on a drone to transport hydrogen fuel from Europa to a space station. So Ion thrusters and atmospheric thrusters won't cut it. And I am playing in survival where uranium is rare to come by.
If I fly myself I use 5-10% of my fuel lifting up into orbit and coasting to my station. The AI uses at least 90% and in some cases won't reach the station.

well i have your solution then. use a if speed is X shut off the forward thrusters so they burn minimal fuel/energy and have a if planet gravity is X so for example .4 and have one type of thruster turn off and another turn on. you could also for fuel efficiency is shut off the reverse thrusters while exiting a gravity-well then once 0 gravity is reached turn them on.

[Kobeni]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

Is there a mod or other way to have AI use their fuel more efficiently?
I noticed drones tend to use their thrusters way too much. I feel like I am being forced to equip small grid drones with large hydrogen fuel tanks as small tanks run out way too fast. Space drones are bad but in gravity they are even worse.

hey if ya wanna play some SE and show ya some easy tricks i can. 2k+ hours will do that to ya