Follow Me mode?

Joined
Dec 10, 2013
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
How hard would it be to have a Follow Me mode? Set altitude to 50' above me and 20 feet behind or to the side. Phantom could follow and take videos of mountain biking, skiing, etc...Is that a pipe dream or could it be done? Just imagining possibilities... Seems that smart phone would have to transmit its' GPS coordinates to the Phantom. :?
 
Sounds like it will need a lot of interpolation\smoothing out of the data, due to gps accuracy and update rate, but it may be good enough given sufficient distance between the phantom and the object.

Obviously this won't work when the object changes direction\speed too much either.
 
Re: Follow Me mode? Dynamic HOME position, beacon.

This is a GREAT QUESTION. What about some type of electronic homing beacon. That way if you are on a moving object like a bicycle, motorcycle or in our case a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. HERE IS ONE SOLUTION USING A GPS TYPE BEACON. Can some genius make this for the DJI PHANTOM:

http://mikrokopter.com/ucwiki/en/FollowMe
 
pez63 said:
How hard would it be to have a Follow Me mode? Set altitude to 50' above me and 20 feet behind or to the side. Phantom could follow and take videos of mountain biking, skiing, etc...Is that a pipe dream or could it be done? Just imagining possibilities... Seems that smart phone would have to transmit its' GPS coordinates to the Phantom. :?


A Vermont dad has already tackled this assignment- as reported last week on NBC News:

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/helic ... -1C7356195

:!:
 
I was thinking the tracking system in something like the Solo Shot device could be adapted to do this.
The solo shot is a device made to film yourself doing activities like surfing.The main device is tripod mounted with the camera mounted to it and the surfer has a transmitter strapped to the wrist and the the solo shot follows the transmitter,so the camera follows the surfer.
So if the electronics from the main unit could be integrated with the Naza & Phantom and a person carries the transmitter and goes for a ride or drive and the Phantom will follow.Not recommended for forested areas of cause.

http://soloshot.com/aboutus

All the technology exists,it just needs someone to adapt it to work.
 
WOW! Onthwave: that wakeboarding video was exactly what I was envisioning and they actually called it Follow Me transmitter. That was amazing. They even managed to have the camera pointing correctly which was a challenge I had not yet considered but would have come up quickly. I had been thinking that for something like waterskiing, 10' high and 20' to the side would be ideal but a mountain biker in the woods might need 100' high and 20' back in order to evade trees, etc.

I had been wondering about how to end the flight... If it's in Follow Me mode and the battery starts to run low.... then what? Back to it's launch point? If so, it needs to calculate flight time to return and compare to remaining battery. If mountain biking, this is not what you'd want really so you'd have to regain flight control and have it land where you direct.

Coloradosky: that one sounded like a direct match as well. The technology is out there for sure.
 
Assuming that the DJI-Vision can actually get data from and to
the P2V flight controller, and not just to the camera, then these
types of functions should be relatively easy to add.

For example, tell the P2V to fly in a circle, centered at its
present position, keeping the camera facing the center,
radius R feet, and recording video or a set of stills, over N minutes.
An Auto-Panorama sequence.
 
garygid said:
Assuming that the DJI-Vision can actually get data from and to
the P2V flight controller, and not just to the camera, then these
types of functions should be relatively easy to add.

For example, tell the P2V to fly in a circle, centered at its
present position, keeping the camera facing the center,
radius R feet, and recording video or a set of stills, over N minutes.
An Auto-Panorama sequence.

I believe one or more of the DJI pro/commercial grade flight controllers (Wookong and/or A2) has a mode like this called POI. You can point the aircraft at the thing you want to capture at the distance you want to be away. It will then follow a circular path around the object whilst keeping the front (i.e. the camera) pointing at the point of interest - it will auto-yaw to keep things centred in the camera view.
 
Butcher99 said:
3D Robotics forthcoming IRIS (https://store.3drobotics.com/products/iris) is supposed to have this feature. I'll be getting one next month and let yo know how it works. Problem with the Iris is it doesn't come stock with FPV but they tell me they'll have that available soon.

Hey Butcher99, did you end up getting the IRIS? Interested to see reviews or videos. cheers
 
I like the idea of this thing too. I have the vision but it seems like this does a lot more for the money. Love to hear what someone things of it. I also LOVE that it seems to be American based. Seriously join to be looking into this.

JJ
 
phantomnz said:
Butcher99 said:
3D Robotics forthcoming IRIS (https://store.3drobotics.com/products/iris) is supposed to have this feature. I'll be getting one next month and let yo know how it works. Problem with the Iris is it doesn't come stock with FPV but they tell me they'll have that available soon.

Hey Butcher99, did you end up getting the IRIS? Interested to see reviews or videos. cheers

+1... I've been keeping an eye on the Iris too...

-slinger
 
gunslinger said:
phantomnz said:
Butcher99 said:
3D Robotics forthcoming IRIS (https://store.3drobotics.com/products/iris) is supposed to have this feature. I'll be getting one next month and let yo know how it works. Problem with the Iris is it doesn't come stock with FPV but they tell me they'll have that available soon.

Hey Butcher99, did you end up getting the IRIS? Interested to see reviews or videos. cheers

+1... I've been keeping an eye on the Iris too...

-slinger

Yeah, but didn't I read they have a 10-15 minutes flight time? Less with camera?

I guess the Phantom has spoiled me :(

I'm more curious about that Yuneec setup ... 60 minutes flight time? (very $$$, though)
 
Hey PullUp would a FUTABA 14SG have a POI type programming mode? I guess we also need a 3 axis gimble so the camera could stay on target as it flies around in a circle...I've heard some rumors that something like this may be announced at NAB...of course rumors like the new GOPRO 4! BRING BACK COLIN GUINN too DJI!
 
No expert here but could a pad be made to place under the vision before it marks its gps home point and could fool it to think thats where it has to land in rth mode? If you were moving it would keep trying to follow you at a 20m height?
Just a thought....
 
onthewave said:
Hey PullUp would a FUTABA 14SG have a POI type programming mode? I guess we also need a 3 axis gimble so the camera could stay on target as it flies around in a circle...I've heard some rumors that something like this may be announced at NAB...of course rumors like the new GOPRO 4! BRING BACK COLIN GUINN too DJI!

Hello. I have no idea about Futabas - but if it runs on 2.4GHz then you wouldn't be able to use it on the Vision. Nevermind having to retro-fit a Futaba receiver, you would get massive interference from the 2.4GHz wifi in the Vision camera.

And you can keep Colin. :)
 
Mal_PV2_Ireland said:
No expert here but could a pad be made to place under the vision before it marks its gps home point and could fool it to think thats where it has to land in rth mode? If you were moving it would keep trying to follow you at a 20m height?
Just a thought....


No, RTH is driven by recording Lat/Lon post satellite lock by the GPS not by a landing pad.
 
Phantoms already have the homepoint function. And with groundstation and datalink you can 'move' the homepoint on the fly.

So if the ipad could pass it's GPS location to the GS app, and the GS app update the home position every second then the phantom could follow the ipad.

But the problem is if you move too slow, it will catch up with you and try humping your ipad like a randy dog!
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,357
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31