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Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]
- NKCSS 13y agoVery cool :)
- uptown 13y agoThe Phantom 2 are pretty great drones ... but they're also prone to "fly away" where they decide to take-off on their own - ignoring your commands. There's a bunch of videos on YouTube showing people's Phantoms flying away. Like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkQ9eB7M7iQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkQ9eB7M7iQ This video purports to help prevent that from happening, though it's not guaranteed to prevent your $1000 drone from making a break for it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bxjL7wFyb8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bxjL7wFyb8
- sillysaurus3 13y agoDrones are getting pretty incredible. This one is almost indestructible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl2Z9N4Q82g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl2Z9N4Q82g
- deletes 13y agoIt fails as soon as one of the rotors deforms. That doesn't make it very reliable. I wonder how many rotors they went trough the entire lifespan.
- baddox 13y agoI backed their Kickstarter, and have also met the guys and seen those airframes in person at their "Game of Drones: Flight Club" meetups in SF [0]. You're right that they still use normal propellers, and that those will be the weak spot when ramming into things. But the point is simply that the airframe itself is sturdy and nearly indestructible. They're designed to battle in the air against one another, which inevitably causes lots of falls and prop replacements. They're not meant to be "reliable" in the sense that they could fly autonomous missions repeatedly or serve other commercial purposes. They're meant to be beaters. [0] http://www.gameofdrones.biz/#!sumostory/c2kw http://www.gameofdrones.biz/#!sumostory/c2kw
- plaguuuuuu 13y agoHave they ever thought of using carbon fibre props, you can 3D print CF now
- baddox 13y agoCF props are quite common for multirotors, but I don't think they'd be good for battling simply because they're significantly more expensive than plastic props, and for battling you're not really concerned with efficiency or prop deflection.
- MrBuddyCasino 13y agoThat was rather spectacular. I couldn't help but think that someone else controlled it, it was so many times close to run into power lines. Are there any believable theories as to why that happens?
- mikeyouse 13y agoWatching an uncontrolled drone strafe an overpass at street level and split power lines for a commuter train, really increases my sympathy toward those who want to regulate these.
- baddox 13y agoDJI is massive player in the commercial drone space, so when regulations get written, you can bet DJI will be one of the corporations writing them.
- grinich 13y agoWe really should also regulate pigeons.
- MiguelHudnandez 13y agoPigeons usually do not have fast-spinning blades attached to them. I am not really for regulation, but these things can actually hurt people [1]. RC Helicopters (with one large, main rotor) have actually killed people [2]. Hobbyists must take great care to operate their drones safely, and companies should assume some liability for runaway situations like this if they ever result in injuries. Warning, pictures of injuries: [1a] https://www.google.com/search?q=quadrotor+injury&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=quadrotor+injury&tbm=isch [1b] https://www.google.com/search?q=multirotor+injury&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=multirotor+injury&tbm=isch [2] RC helicopter fatalities: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2413231/Roman-Pirozek-Jr-Man-decapitates-remote-control-helicopter.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2413231/Roman-Piroze...
- plaguuuuuu 13y ago>Pigeons usually do not have fast-spinning blades attached to them BRB attaching circular saw to pigeon
- baddox 13y agoSo can people with knives or swords, or baseballs propelled by a bat. Anyway, I suspect that all of those quadcopter injuries occurred while the owner was setting up the quadcopter. Every story I've read (mostly from my frequent visits to RC hobby forums) is from people attempting to test functionality on a bench with the propellers on, or perhaps a few people who attempt to take off with their aircraft right at their feet. The RC helicopter death is a valid point, but that's the only RC aircraft related death I know of, and helis like his pretty much self-regulate because they're expensive, require mechanical knowledge to setup and maintain, and will mostly likely never get off the ground if flown by someone who doesn't know what they're doing.
- digz 13y agoI've had a Phantom for a while, and more recently the Phantom 2. Have never had any issues whatsoever. I don't discount that these happen, but as with most things, there's a pretty big sample bias in complaints. Also of note, winds aloft are often not the same as winds on the ground. Given top speed on these guys is around ~20mph, any wind above that and you've got a fly-away. Again, definitely doesn't account for all fly-aways, but I would venture that it does explain some.
- tlrobinson 13y agoIs the controller link digital or analog? If it's digital why don't they checksum and/or sign packets to avoid continuous interference doing anything but triggering failsafe mode?
- duiker101 13y agoNice footage but I didn't really like the editing. On a side not, damn $900 and it can fly 22 minutes. That sounds very little, I hope this things will improve soon they sound amazingly fun!
- dmd 13y agoI would have said "damn, $900, and it can fly 22 minutes!". That seems like a hell of a lot to me, based on what was possible just a few years ago.
- nikster 13y ago22 minutes is a really long time for a drone. As for $900 - it survived getting way too close to an active volcano... this is good stuff.
- jccooper 13y ago22 minutes is quite good. 7 is about normal. Even on the larger ones, you don't often see >10 min. Actually, the Phantom 2 is said to go 25-30 minutes, but perhaps that's without payload. This fellow went all-out to get 97 minutes: http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/my-97minute-06second-record-quadcopter-flight http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/my-97minute-06second...
- Florin_Andrei 13y agoThat's actually not bad. The amounts of energy required for powered flight are stupendous. It won't even be near that if it weren't for Li-Ion batteries.
- Killah911 13y agoFootage got better by turning the sound off. I wonder if editors in general have poor taste in music or are simply trying to convey their excitement thru dub step background music.
- Kiro 13y agoI think the music was the best thing about it.
- sillysaurus3 13y agoJust curious, which music would you use? This happens to be important to me, so some analysis would be appreciated. EDIT: Assume only a visual feed was available, no audio.
- natch 13y agoI would frankly like to hear the sounds of a spewing, gushing, burning volcano, even if it's underneath the (also very fun to listen to) sound of the drone itself and all the wind noise. It doesn't seem like a huge leap in intuition to realize that this would be exciting to hear even if the environment is noisy.
- eterm 13y agoEvery sound you've ever heard on a nature program is fake, that is to say it's mixed in after from other sources.
- cooper12 13y ago>Every sound you've ever heard That's a really broad claim. DO you have a source for this statement?
- sbirchall 13y agoyeah I wouldn't say _Every_ but a very large majority most certainly are. I used to delight in ruining people's enjoyment of nature documentaries by pointing out that anything walking on snow is the sound of custard powder being crunched and twisted in a rubber glove! Yeah: I'm a bastard ;)
- nlh 13y agoThis is supremely cool. Tangential stupid question: Obviously there's been a ton of buzz lately (and innovation) in the drone space. What's the big technological driver that's allowed / caused this to happen? I don't know the details of the internals but it seems that the tech has been around for a while (radio controlled planes, servos, helicopters, smallish cameras, etc.).
- lmm 13y agoThe multi-rotor drones are basically uncontrollable without computers; you need a reasonably powerful processor, which in turn means a fairly high-capacity battery. I think a lot of the innovation has come from mobile phone tech; there's now a lot more demand for small, light, high-performance processors, batteries and cameras, and so while much of the tech is not really new it's a lot more available to hobbyists than it was a few years ago.
- cscheid 13y agoThe set of (say) 4 motors consumes much more power than the on-board computers. Brushless controllers these days handle 20 amps at around 5 volts for a total wattage of 400W(!) . The on-board computer power doesn't even count. Of course, you're right that powerful computers are needed. But it's more about miniaturization for weight purposes.
- fh973 13y agoMost fly with 8-bit Arduinos actually. Their power consumption is nil compared to the brushless motors.
- Florin_Andrei 13y ago> The multi-rotor drones are basically uncontrollable without computers; you need a reasonably powerful processor True. > which in turn means a fairly high-capacity battery. Not true. A microcontroller CPU is good enough. Take a look at the KK2.1 flight controller. https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__49254__Hobbyking_KK2_1_Multi_rotor_LCD_Flight_Control_Board_With_6050MPU_And_Atmel_644PA.html https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__49254__Hobbyking... Its brain is an ATmega644, which only requires 240µA @ 1.8V, 1MHz, according to the spec sheet. http://www.atmel.com/devices/atmega644.aspx http://www.atmel.com/devices/atmega644.aspx You do need energy-dense batteries, but all that energy goes into the rotors.
- clarry 13y agoI guess there's supposed to be a video there. Can I have a link to it?
- prewett 13y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-shWVW1UBc&list=UUeshk0LPlCkUlNuAAwkbjdw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-shWVW1UBc&list=UUeshk0LPlCk...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- TheLoneWolfling 13y agoLosing a drone is a lot better than losing your life. Teleimmersion gear + a drone like this = ?
- bstew 13y agoProbably pushing around $2k if they got an aftermarket transmitter and FPV gear. You can get the whole setup to do this for about $1200 with everything you need but I assume they probably used some pricy extras.
- afhsfsfdsss88 13y agoFrom a hacker's perspective, this is very want.
- Florin_Andrei 13y agoYou could build one piecemeal. It's what I'm doing these days.
- MiguelHudnandez 13y agoMake magazine's latest issue is apt: http://makezine.com/volume/make-37/ http://makezine.com/volume/make-37/
- Aardwolf 13y agoAmazing! How are the images collected? Is it streaming while the drone flies, or do you have to get the drone back "alive" to retrieve the data from it? How do you control the drone, that is, do you get a first person view of the drone while you control it, or do you have to go with looking at it in the distance?
- dronehire 13y agoIt is likely that the drone operator was flying by FPV (first-person view), using an onboard camera and transmitter to stream video back to a monitor or goggles. An operator will usually have two cameras, one that records high-quality video to an onboard SD card, and another camera for streaming FPV.
- sounds 13y agoEdit: Ninja'd by dronehire. Please refer to his answer. Educated guess here, but the article says it's a GoPro camera, so they probably have to get the drone back alive and download the video from the GoPro. On the other hand, wireless HD video streaming isn't that hard to do, especially in remote areas like volcanoes where the 2.4GHz band is pretty much all yours. To do better out of line-of-sight it makes sense to use both a fast 2.4GHz radio and a more reliable but slower 433/900 radio and buffer the video on the drone if the 2.4GHz radio drops. But that isn't going to be as cheap as just strapping a GoPro on one of these Phantoms.
- kefka 13y ago400MHz/900MHz are not "slower", it's just that the band plans only allow less bandwidth usage. Because the 2.4GHz band is so high frequency, an individual channel can be bigger. For 802.11B, it's 22MHz channels. But, it's easier to make a radio using lower frequencies. In the 70 cm band (400~MHz), you can get some ground-wave propagation. But the overall channel size is smaller. With 2.4, its Line of Sight only. In all honesty, the ideal setup is a low frequency (144MHz or lower) for command and control, with a higher frequency video transmitter. No sense in sending every bit of data down the same pipe. Source: Me, KC9JEF
- nsoldiac 13y agoI'm a Phantom owner and I'm skeptical about those flying time numbers. I get 15-18 minutes on the drone by itself, but if you add the weight of the gimbal and camera (~0.5lb) the flight time goes down at least 4 mins, AND the gimbal needs power from the drone's battery too. I've heard the Phantom's flying time with the working gimbal is more like 6-8 mins. But if you know what kinda shot you want, that could be more than enough, just get lots of extra batteries (and those have dipped in price, you can grab one for $12).
- dronehire 13y agoDo you own a Phantom or Phantom 2? The latter, which is referred to in the linked article, uses a much higher capacity LiPo battery (5,200mAh vs 2,200mAh) and consequently has double the flight time. However, you are correct in stating that adding a gimbal and camera will reduce flight time.
- digz 13y agoI get muuuuuch more than 6-8 minutes with my phantom 2 and gimbal. I don't like to push it, so my longest flights are usually ~15 minutes, but I always have at least ~30% battery remaining. In addition to providing power to the gimbal, the phantom 2 is also giving some juice to the gopro, and to a fpv transmitter.
- tvirelli 13y agoWas I the only one hoping to see lava hit the drone and take it down?
- will_brown 13y agoAnyone notice the Google Map under the video showing the location of the video? If anyone is interested here is a link with the video geotagged in Google Maps: http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/show_video.php?vid=140 http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/show_vide...
- trevoragilbert 13y agoThis is really cool. Though seems a bit risky to have your drone flying around with lava shooting through the air. Any idea on how they avoided ruining their drone?
- Stratoscope 13y agoThat's simple: none of the chunks of red hot molten lava flying all around the drone actually hit it. If you want a technical term, I think it's called "sample bias".