Your dream drone and handling existing limitations

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waffles91

Member
Hi everyone! There are currently a lot of drones in the market being used for photography and video. I was wondering what are some of the features that you already love in existing drones and what new features you would include that might not already exist. Just want to know everyone’s creative ideas!

Also, what are the key limitations that you see now and how do you handle the legalities associated with it?
 

BenSkoning

BenSkoning

frozen in the north
First of they are not "drones" they are SUASs or small unmanned aerial systems, But for the rest of your post the largest limitation is battery energy density. This could easily be fixed with a lithium carbon battery but they are not out of lab testing.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
waffles, where are you at as a user? are you flying anything yet?

are you associated with a manufacturer or shop somewhere?

the post you made can encompass so many different things it's hard to answer it at all without writing multiple chapter. you'll need to be more specific and maybe introduce yourself at the same time.

Bart
 

W

waffles91

Member
Bartman said:
waffles, where are you at as a user? are you flying anything yet?

are you associated with a manufacturer or shop somewhere?

the post you made can encompass so many different things it's hard to answer it at all without writing multiple chapter. you'll need to be more specific and maybe introduce yourself at the same time.

Bart
Click to expand...

Hi Bart,

I am a beginner and own a DJI. I did a lot of research and everybody recommended that. But I am having a lot of trouble with it. The props and landing gear keeps on getting in the video footage.

I guess, I wanted to know what features others think are important in a QuadCopter when making a purchase. I am just getting into aerial film and photography as a hobby, so I wanted to know where would I expand from a DJI.

Thanks so much for your reply!

Waffles91
 

W

waffles91

Member
Hi! Thats good to know - I am just getting into aerial film and photography as a hobby so I am not very familiar with the appropriate language - My apologies!

As for the battery, how long of a flight time is regularly needed? I am sure it depends on the individual but I just wanted to know what is the average time most people want.
 

J

jdennings

Member
Actually (but I sure don't want to start a semantic war, ot on top of that) the drone term is being used so much as a catch-all by just about everybody these days that your use of it is just fine. I can't count the number of times I've been approached flying small copters and asked the typical "It's a drone! How high can it go?" and replied that "well, technically, it's a ...". Gave up on that. And when flying on a larger copter doing a full autonomous mission, well, yes, it was a drone ...
The fight for semantic accuracy was lost a while back, no point in spilling milk over it.
 

gtranquilla

gtranquilla

RadioActive
KEY LIMITATIONS:
1) Battery energy density (capacity relative to weight)
2) Corresponding flight range and flight time limitations
3) SYSTEM RELIABILITY! - While we see smart phones and computers suddenly fail from time to time, the consequence of equivalent failure requiring a simple system reboot while in the air is not an option!

GREATEST FEATURE(S)
1) RTH - return to Home via GPS
2) Battery level visual warning and auto-land before battery depletion

NEW FEATURES WANTED:
1) VANET or V2V concept for Multirotors...... would enable them to fly in formation and/or avoid air collisions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-to-vehicle

LEGALITIES:
1) The current regulations are, for the most part valid, and based on the need to ensure safety for all. I just obtained my first TC SFOC making it legal for me to fly for commercial purposes here in Canada.
IMHO - One can never trust these to remain 100% reliable such that a sudden loss of control near people and expensive property remains a very high risk. And that is why I will not fly near people or built-up areas. All my fun and test flights are carried out in an almost abandoned soccer field close to home.



waffles91 said:
Hi everyone! There are currently a lot of drones in the market being used for photography and video. I was wondering what are some of the features that you already love in existing drones and what new features you would include that might not already exist. Just want to know everyone’s creative ideas!

Also, what are the key limitations that you see now and how do you handle the legalities associated with it?
Click to expand...
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
the autonomous part is what takes it there, whether its the rth functions or a full blown ground station, if it can fly itself it's a drone by definition, but in the industry a UAV is the aircraft and a UAS is the aircraft with the ground station whether be it FPV or digitized mapping on a pc....

The only bad part of it all is the public doesn't understand any of this and use the term loosley, there perception is often a weapon of war even though 99% of the craft in use is for hobby & commercial AP.
 

J

jdennings

Member
For what it's worth, my dream machine ...

1. 30 minutes flight hanging 4kg payload, size < 900mm. X12 probably.
2. Centimeter precision "hands-off" positioning (lidar altitude hold and differential Piksi like GPS navigation)
3. Full autonomy with repeatable spline following flight paths for camera moves, reproducing a manual flight.
4. < $1,000, so I could have a dozen.

1. I'm almost there.
2. Getting there ...
3. A bit further ...
4. Dream on ...

And the holy grail, for me ... real time vision based camera tracking and flight navigation. Lock the camera on talent, for instance, and off you go. This one's going to take a while, but it'll get there.
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
in regards to the autonomy part, keep an ear to the door here cause we got a lot of that in the works.....

work smarter not harder
 

J

jdennings

Member
Oh, and forgot a key requirement ... Full redundancy on all critical components: imu, compass, gps,etc ... Pretty much there ...
 

W

waffles91

Member
Hi gtranquilla!

You made some really great points. The features you mentioned, I think are definitely really important. As for that V2V thing, I would love to see someone actually do that! Is there something in the market that already does that? If not I would like to know if someone is trying to accomplish that.

Apparently there are a few companies in Canada doing neat stuff with UAVs, there's one in Montreal and a couple in Toronto too. Do you know anything about them?
 





gtranquilla

gtranquilla

RadioActive
V2V may be a challenge as additional radio frequencies would be required to work without interference with other onboard radio transmitter.
If V2V becomes mass produced for vehicles, the pricing will fall as it did originally for the fuel injection system accelerometers implemented many years ago.

waffles91 said:
Hi gtranquilla!

You made some really great points. The features you mentioned, I think are definitely really important. As for that V2V thing, I would love to see someone actually do that! Is there something in the market that already does that? If not I would like to know if someone is trying to accomplish that.

Apparently there are a few companies in Canada doing neat stuff with UAVs, there's one in Montreal and a couple in Toronto too. Do you know anything about them?
Click to expand...
 

W

waffles91

Member
gtranquilla said:
V2V may be a challenge as additional radio frequencies would be required to work without interference with other onboard radio transmitter.
If V2V becomes mass produced for vehicles, the pricing will fall as it did originally for the fuel injection system accelerometers implemented many years ago.
Click to expand...


Hi,

I was browsing around and came across these guys: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/plexidrone-making-aerial-photography-a-breeze. Is their Swarm technology the same as the V2V thing you mentioned?
 

Old Man

Old Man

Active Member
Military is all over the V2V thing right now. There's already one large manned "command" aircraft with capability to direct multiples of different unmanned systems simultaneously. That might trickle down eventually.
 

S

subatomic

New Member
jdennings,

You said you're almost there with the 30 mins of flight time hanging 4kg payload with size <900mm.

That's impressive. What are your specs? Frame, layout, motors, esc's, batteries, etc. Thanks!


jdennings said:
For what it's worth, my dream machine ...

1. 30 minutes flight hanging 4kg payload, size < 900mm. X12 probably.
2. Centimeter precision "hands-off" positioning (lidar altitude hold and differential Piksi like GPS navigation)
3. Full autonomy with repeatable spline following flight paths for camera moves, reproducing a manual flight.
4. < $1,000, so I could have a dozen.

1. I'm almost there.
2. Getting there ...
3. A bit further ...
4. Dream on ...

And the holy grail, for me ... real time vision based camera tracking and flight navigation. Lock the camera on talent, for instance, and off you go. This one's going to take a while, but it'll get there.
Click to expand...
 

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