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Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Justin_K 7y agoLooks really cool, but I'm skeptical of all the demo videos and whether or not a person or software flew the drone. Would like to see some independent reviews of their following capability.
- notus 7y agoI think even if it is not that great it still beats DJI from a price point and technical specs perspective.
- probablyexists 7y agoIt is always good for DJI to have some competition. They have been spending too much time going after GoPro cameras instead of advancing their quadcopters.
- LASR 7y agoHonestly I am glad they went after the GoPro. The GoPro is now a buggy piece of shit. I switched over to an OsmoAction and I finally realized how many annoyances I was putting up with GoPro.
- samfisher83 7y agoDJI makes multiple drones at multiple price points. I think not making it fold-able is going to hurt them. I know some people use their drone to follow them, but a lot of people just to fly their drone. I don't see why they would have any advantage in that space. I feel this probably cool technology without a good market fit.
- lkschubert8 7y agoI think it may just be the case that they heavily culled the shots they had. Some of the "automated" movement does end up looking too cinematic.
- HALtheWise 7y agoYes, we pick the cool looking stuff for publishing, but the bigger factor is that we really do program the AI to fly in cinematic ways. Because it has a full 3D model of the world, we can actually model in software a lot of what cinematography traditionally does manually.
- aeternum 7y agoThe Skydio R1 was by far the leader in collision avoidance and follow capability. Flitetest did an independent review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG_PMF27tDE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG_PMF27tDE
- roshanj 7y agoTheVerge video has some good footage of their reporter testing out the functionality https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-autonomous-self-flying-camera-controller-price-release-date-announcement https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-a... edit: I work at Skydio -- all the footage you are seeing is real and filmed entirely on Skydio 2. In our launch video each clip is labeled with "Flying Itself - No Pilot" where it is totally autonomous and "Piloted with AI Assist" when a pilot is using Skydio Controller combined with on-board obstacle avoidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imt2qZ7uw1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imt2qZ7uw1s
- jpm_sd 7y agoThese guys are really sharp, I met a few of them when they worked on Google's Project Wing in the early days.
- HALtheWise 7y agoThanks!
- tekknolagi 7y agoThis seems like an ad. Title reads like one and link just points to homepage. This is the poster's only submission. cc dang
- mtb2718 7y agoFull disclosure: this is a friend's startup. Not intended to be an advert. We've worked together on computer vision problems in the past, and there is some serious tech under the hood here. Happy to change the title if you have a better suggestion.
- yumraj 7y agoYou may want to add a "Show HN:" to the title
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deckar01 7y agoThe home page has detailed information about the technology, UX, and full specs.
- madmax96 7y agoI wonder what autopilot this uses? One of the open source ones or a custom implementation?
- deep_playa 7y agoIf you read through the tech specs everything is developed in house probably using some form of SLAM using the 6 cams - appears to run on TX2 chip
- HALtheWise 7y agoA lot of our systems are built on open source software (the drone runs Linux), but the core algorithms for flying the drone are custom and very state of the art. If you want to know more, we're always hiring.
- 1024core 7y agoI've been keeping a casual eye on drones for a few years, and find it surprising that the flight time always stays between 20 and 30 minutes. Despite all the advances in every other department, the flight time has not changed. Why is that? I would have expected drones capable of flying for over an hour by now.
- jpm_sd 7y agoBoth the force of gravity and the energy density of lithium-ion remain more or less unchanged.
- timerol 7y agoEnergy density improvements in lithium batteries (the biggest factor in flight time) have been fairly gradual. There are drones that can fly longer, but they don't use batteries. There are a few drones that use the frame as a hydrogen tank, and can fly for about 4 hours. (https://edgy.app/hydrogen-powered-drone-hycopter-flight-4-hours https://edgy.app/hydrogen-powered-drone-hycopter-flight-4-ho...)
- LASR 7y agoWe’re kind of stuck with current battery tech. While a ton of research has been going into batteries, the energy density has barely improved. We’re very much at the extreme edge of diminishing returns with the current chemistries. It’s a fundamental material science limit. There are a few new chemistries that are significantly better. But those are nowhere near mass-production. Expensive, unreliable, unsafe. The very high-performance drones use carbon-fiber composites. Those have longer runtime with current batteries. But again, those are expensive.
- snovv_crash 7y agoExpect that to jump to ~40-50 minutes in the next year or so as some new battery tech comes to market. I've personally seen an endurance-test video of a small quadcopter with almost an hour flight time using prototypes of the new battery tech.
- anfractuosity 7y ago"Utilizing 45 megapixels of visual sensing from six 200 degree color cameras, Skydio 2 can see everything in every direction with unprecedented resolution and clarity." - Just to clarify, that means the Jetson TX2 can capture and process data from all 6 cameras, simultaneously, at 4k each? At what framerate is that too out of interest?
- deckar01 7y agoThe "Navigation Camera System" section lists these details: 30fps from each of the 6 4k navigation cameras.
- HALtheWise 7y agoIt's a little bit complicated to answer this, because (as with all engineering) everything is tradeoffs. While I'm pretty sure the Tegra could in theory collect and process all of that data, doing so would load the processor and memory bandwidth enough that we couldn't run any the other algorithms we need to fly safely. In practice, that means that the framerates we process depend on exactly what the vehicle is trying to do and how it is moving.
- myself248 7y agoIn other words, you're unlikely to bump into something you're moving away from, which is why humans don't have eyes on the back of our heads either. This has eyes mounted everywhere, but I presume it dedicates its visual cortex (to stretch the analogy a bit) to the ones facing in the directions that matter.
- anfractuosity 7y agoThanks a lot for your reply!, yeah I was thinking 4k * 6 cameras is an awful lot of data to process.
- HALtheWise 7y agoI'm an autonomy engineer at Skydio, and while there are limits to what I can reveal publicly, I'm happy to answer any questions people have.
- bluegene 7y agoI've never flown a drone before. How easy would it be for me to learn?
- HALtheWise 7y agoTake a look at the warranty. If the drone crashes, it's our fault not yours. In that sense, flying Skydio 2 should require about the same minimum skill as using a smartphone camera (i.e. none). We say a three year old can operate it, but that's not a hard minimum ;) That said, there is always a skill ladder to climb if you want jaw-dropping professional footage, where understanding lighting, composition, editing, etc. benefit the quality of what you can make. The drone is pretty good at autonomously picking good shots, but there's also a lot of manual control possible, especially with the controller.
- HALtheWise 7y agoEdit: Also, don't forget about local regulations wherever you fly. You are still legally the pilot, even if the drone's software can make that easier.
- skavi 7y agoIt looks like the point of this product is that it flys itself.
- xtagon 7y agoHobbiest, here. While these types of products are very easy to learn how to control, I would discourage anyone from suggesting that they "fly itself" because it's that type of thinking that encourages newcomers to the hobby to ignore learning about safety and following regulations. They only fly itself to a degree, you still need to be diligent and they can be dangerous machines.
- sauwan 7y agoIs there any way to get the 3d geometry out to create 3d models of things like buildings or rooms? Looking for something similar to Matterport, but flyable.
- myself248 7y agoWhoah. If not, let's hope it can be hacked to log all that.
- HALtheWise 7y agoWe have a partnership with and support for Dronedeploy, which provides tools for many basic scanning uses. If you have an application that needs more detailed integration with the autonomy in the Skydio system, get in touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOBkgqdT4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOBkgqdT4o
- agar 7y agoSomewhat related, any plans for integration with VR headsets? This could either be first-person flying, or the generation of stereo-correct video (using offset cameras) for later viewing.
- cultofmetatron 7y agolooks cool and with all the human rights abuses coming out of China, I'd rather throw my money at a homegrown company. when do you think the final version will be out?
- jiveturkey 7y agoeh? where do you think the parts for this come from?
- cultofmetatron 7y agogotta start somewhere!
- roflchoppa2 7y ago+1
- HALtheWise 7y agoWhat's available for preorder now is the "final version" of the Skydio 2, and we expect to be shipping in November. We are limited in how fast we can assemble them, so if you want to get the drone by the holidays, preordering now is a very good idea.
- busterarm 7y agoSuper cool. Preordered and looks well-worth it IMO.
- jiveturkey 7y agonice. i pre-ordered one so that it can follow me around while i do my hero activities. hopefully it plays a soundtrack like in the video so i can be properly represented. i never thought i'd want one of these but now i do. great job. i like when a marketing dept is as good as the engineering dept (or vice versa if you come from other POV). i was going to give a smack down about how there is no information about legal and safety issues around drones, and while it isn't on the front page it was very, very easy to find. https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Skydio-Flight-Safety https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Sk...
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoVery interesting. Thank you for sharing. I am very glad to see an American drone company in response to DJI's dominance of the consumer market.
- theicfire 7y agoThis is an astounding engineering achievement. I love how they were able to do all this autonomy with fisheye lenses -- the only navigation cameras are pointing up and down! It's incredibly rare that a company is on the cutting edge of both software and hardware. There are hardly any other companies in this category. I'd say: - SpaceX (the control software for landing is outstanding) - Apple (although their software isn't the best, i.e. Siri, or how late to the game they were with night sight) - Not Tesla (hardware is incredible, auto pilot is struggling) - Not Amazon (Kindle is great, but not a remarkable engineering achievement)
- tony2016 7y agoThe R1 (first gen) propellers were protected by a plastic shield around them. Here they are exposed. What happens if the drone hits a tree or some branches? Won't the propellers easily break?