Automated Multi-Rotor and a Moving Beacon?

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h20octo

New Member
Is it possible?!? Or shall I say, has it been done?

Hi, new poster here out of the eastern US. Completely new to Multi-Rotor AND custom RC in general. 15+ years in the belly of electronic communications industry though, so hopefully capable of understanding and learning.

I have a question that I have been pondering but just started looking into. I only discovered that these multi-rotor devices existed about a year ago and have been fascinated with the stability as a filming platform ever since. One of my many loves in life is whitewater kayaking. With the introduction of low-priced HD cameras, it has like many "extreme" sports become a niche market for such devices. At this point, helmet cams, boat cams, chest cams, etc are most prevelent, but multirotors are still a relatively new concept to documenting whitewater runs. Here is a pretty nice example here:

http://vimeo.com/43999146

I understand that hobbyists are now working with GPS equipped multi-rotors and GPS waypoints to create autonomous flight, but still need to read up on the details. Is it possible to have a multi-rotor set up to follow a moving beacon? Say a small transmitter in the boat? Something along the lines of the GPS data controlling the location of the copter, but the moving beacon controlling the orientation of the copter "and camera", ultimately making the moving beacon the object of its fixation. Is this being tinkered with in the hobbyist world at all? If so, any reference information that somebody could point me to? Even if not yet being worked on, this seems entirely doable with the right equipment and code. Any thoughts or ideas on this?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated in advance!!

-H2o
 

ChrisViperM

ChrisViperM

Active Member
Hello

I am not 100% sure if I understand your question (English is not my mother language)...but do you mean something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPaD91-KbrI&feature=autoplay&list=PL8B87700CB566387F&playnext=1

....BUT as far as I know it would only follow you...not fly ahead of you. But this flight control only makes the Copter follow you....but you would als need the camera focusing on you. I think it is possible to have a camera locked to a static target via POI, but I am not aware of focusing on moving targets. But there are quiet a few more experienced users than me in this forum...maybe they can help you.
 

R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Simply put, yes, absolutely what you want is being worked on. The Arducopter program is working towards just this goal. In fact, I think most of the program is already there, and all we're missing is the linkage between something like a GPS equiped smartphone, to the Copter itself. I believe it has already been done to have a GPS equiped laptop do it, but having a small beacon or smartphone do it is another matter. Chris Anderson actually mentioned this on the article he wrote a few weeks ago (that was not well received in some circles, but regardless) that that is an end-goal of the system, that it become the ultimate action-cam system.

There are of course some technicalities which will get in the way. Obviously you'd need some sort of guidance or collision avoidance system to avoid hitting cliffs and trees. The system would also have to be very self-aware with good fail-safes. For exmaple, if it detects some failure, what is it going to do? Return to the landing zone? What if it can't make the landing zone? Where does it land? If nobody is guiding it because you are the only operator and are busy paddling...

So basically, the technology is here now. But the practical reality still makes this difficult. Now, having somebody on land flying FPV and guiding the thing remotely (which is probably how that film was done) is definitely doable.
 

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h20octo

New Member
Agreed, I believe that they were probably flying remote FPV. Thats pretty sweet indeed, but it would be even sweeter if you could document your own run. On wideish rivers generally the only elevatios that you need to worry about are occassional bridges and small islands. Other than that the run is pretty much obstacle free. I appreciate the links and will look further into it. It would seem that it is only a matter of time before this idea becomes a reality, (maybe not by me) but most likely but existing enthusiasts or college class. Cant wait to see what the future brings!

H2o
 

R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Yeah, realistically, I think we are a few years away yet from true, push-button, follow-me, action-cam quads. But only a few years I'd think. The programs required for stable flight, and basic GPS navigation is pretty much freely available to all, right now, from a number of sources. But to make the next step, to get to reliable, fully autonomous flight, with collision avoidance and some amount of intelligence is yet a ways off.
 


R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
ChrisViperM said:
....apart from the academical chit-chat, have a look there:

http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/FollowMe#How_does_it_work.3F

...seems they are a bit further ahead than Arducopter

Chris
Click to expand...

Yes, I've seen that video before, pretty cool. Have any customers actually gotten it working? I haven't seen that yet.

Also, as I say, we're still a long way off from fully autonomous filming. They obviously had somebody on the ground who did the take-off and, error handling.
 




D

Dewster

Member
There are some companies out there to watch for: ZeroUav is one that has a follow me feature that uses the wifi signal from your phone. I saw the feature on Mikrokopter years ago, but haven't seen anyone else use the feature online. It would be easier to film if you had someone you knew do the filming for you. I"m sure remote launch, follow me, and autonomous landing is around the corner as a feature set on these flight systems. I started after a friend mentioned that he wanted to do aerial photography with balloons. I researched this and came across a company called Draganfly. That lead to me finding Microdrones, Mikrokopter, AR Drone, Hoverfly, DJI innovations, ZeroUAV... The technology is out there and the companies compete with each other as far as features/price go. The commercial builds are expensive, but building one yourself will give you more features than you can buy outright...at the moment.
 

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