Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use drones with more than 4 rotors.
Exactly. If you are flying over people AT ALL you should be using an octocopter at least.
What about an hexacopter with opposing rotors (Y configuration)?
Lily – Drone camera
191–200 of 496 posts
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#192Without a human operator assessing risk, what's to stop the drone from accidentally flying into someone and cutting them up with its blades?
I see multiple comments saying that the blades are harmless, but a quick search through google photos seems to imply otherwise to me. Not to mention the force of this thing dropping on your head after it clips a nearby branch, or has a system failure. I suppose the answer is that the owner needs to be responsible with its usage. The example footage seemed fairly reasonable use-cases (no bystanders).
Yeah, those blades are NOT harmless. They will cut you up on the thinner skin bit and do some serious bruising on the thicker skin. Also, anything around the head is asking for losing any eye or something else.
I've been building and flying quads for years now and Anything over the tiny indoor ones commands a LOT of respect from me due to experience.
The idea of these things autonomously following you is cool but a HUGE liability.
Unless they have some major obstacle avoidance on board they you basically could never safely use this around other people and honestly you shouldn't even use it around yourself.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#193This is really, really cool. That said, flying objects are inherently dangerous. I was at a bike race and a guy was following the pack with a DJI drone. One motor suddenly failed and the thing plummeted to the ground from 40ft and broke into a bunch of pieces. Luckily, it didn't hit anyone but it would have been a major incident if it had. There's a lot of excitement about the cool, flashy features of these drones (f…
I want 99.9999% reliability and strong safety guarantees as a feature of cars, bikes, and can openers, too. Unfortunately, currently we probably make do with a few less nines on all these items.
Cars and bikes are directly controlled by humans, and in the case of an emergency, then can perform necessary maneuvers to reduce the damages. Not saying that always happens, but for the most part it does.
A drone that loses an engine falls out of the sky and lands on top of anything that is below it, and as of right now, there are no evasive maneuvers that can be executed. Especially for drones that are being used to record large public gatherings, things like multiple engines or parachutes should be absolutely mandatory, at least by the organizers of the event.
Needless to say, I'd bet it'll take one or two insurance claims until they are.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#194I wonder how this handles obstacles. The trails we ride are not wide open ski slopes, or rivers, often times they are tight/wooded trails. Would like to see how it handles "close following". Lastly, the part in the video where the guy just tosses it into the river was definitely mind-blowing.
Yeah. I kiteboard and I would love to make some images using Lilly. But I'm pretty sure eventually Lilly may crash into the lines or kite.
Same. Also curious about the max wind speed it can handle
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#195what if you realize its out of battery after you throw it off. Starting the rotors before throwing would make the user feel more confident.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#196Without a human operator assessing risk, what's to stop the drone from accidentally flying into someone and cutting them up with its blades?
I can't speak for the Lily blades, but I have a couple of drones a little larger and the blades are harmless - they stop as soon as they detect obstruction and they are flexible/not sharp. It won't cut anyone.
I have NEVER seen a controller that would "stop as soon as they detect obstruction" like you say. In reality the flight controller is likely to do the opposite. Once it detects that the current speed of the blade is not enough to provide the desired lift, it will INCREASE the speed.
Telling people the blades are harmless is very irresponsible.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#197It would be cool if the remote in your pocket had a "Call 911!" button. So like, if I was out snowboarding, and saw an avalanche coming, I probably wouldn't be able to call 911. But this little drone is a good deal above me and the avalanche/murderer/shark/whatever, it could call 911 for me, and when they recovered it, it would have video of what happened to me. It could even fly towards a preset location (known ranger station), broadcasting along the way if there is no cell signal available.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see it the other way around. This could help humans handle obstacles, at least if it could launch itself automatically and when it's a bit smaller so that it's really easy to carry around. African American males could carry it. Then, when police was nearby it could launch itself. Maybe it would be triggered by the sound of sirens or if there is a website that tracks police cars, maybe it could launch every time the…
This is not a bad idea. Women could carry it if they run at night and if they don't make it home it could fly to a police station. Parents could send them out with their kids.
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Re: Lily – Drone camera
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
Drones of this size are cheap enough that the extra weight and cost of engineering of safety devices generally isn't worth it. It's easier to fix or replace parts.
Are you factoring in your personal liability for killing someone in that equation? The comment that mentioned parachutes was talking about how a drone crashed at an event and almost injured people. My personal homeowners liability policy covers things like hitting someone with a shopping cart in the grocery store and hurting them, it probably would also cover a drone, but if you don't have insurance it could expensiv…
It's very unlikely to kill someone, or even seriously injure them. You should be at least as worried about playing baseball or riding a bicycle around people.
Re: Lily – Drone camera
#200It's impressive, no doubt, but I wonder about the actual utility of the device. My main concerned is the 20m battery life/record time - that is pretty limiting. If I were to use this to record myself snowboarding (like the video shows), that would be a problem. Here in Colorado a typical blue rated mountain run is easily 20m from top to bottom, esp. if you aren't gunning it the whole way. When I ride alone I can mayb…
I had to read your post several times that by 'm' you meant minutes. Without that it makes the Colorado ski resorts seem a little less impressive.