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Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

skydio.com

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Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#51

Post by [deleted] »

bbayer wrote: post #42
HALtheWise wrote: post #24

I'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.

Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.

[deleted]

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#52

Post by HALtheWise »

jfim wrote: post #49
HALtheWise wrote: post #24

I'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.

Out of curiosity, how do you handle avoiding long thin objects (cables, power lines)? Is this something that modern drones can handle now, or something that requires careful flying?

Thin objects are really hard, and are probably the single area we have made the most software progress since the R1, especially very thin twigs and branches (it's still not perfect, fly carefully). We completely rebuilt the stereo vision algorithms to try to handle those better, basically by incorporating semantic knowledge (recognizing what is a tree, or a power line) in addition to traditional stereo vision techniques. To my knowledge, our systems are significantly more advanced than even the state of the art in academic research papers, so I would be impressed if there are any other drones that match our performance today.

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#53

Post by HALtheWise »

xtagon wrote: post #45
HALtheWise wrote: post #24

I'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.

It appears to not have a 3-axis gimbal for the front camera, in the promo photos. Yet the demo footage is stable. How is video stabilization accomplished? Does it use the 4K cameras all around the airframe for the actual footage and not just navigation inputs?

We have a 3-axis gimbal, the footage comes from the front camera.

Pics: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-a...

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#54

Post by HALtheWise »

[deleted] wrote: post #51
bbayer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.

[deleted]

Please don't do that.

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#55

Post by leetcrew »

[deleted] wrote: post #51
bbayer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.

[deleted]

it'll be a while yet before someone mounts a usable weapon system on a 700g drone. you might be able to carry a couple bottle rockets and fire them in the general direction of your target, I guess.

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#56

Post by HALtheWise »

bbayer wrote: post #42
HALtheWise wrote: post #24

I'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.

Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.

We are working with various commercial and industrial users, but don't currently have anything to announce regarding a consumer accessible API (partially so people don't do stuff like make weapons). If you think you have a really good application, please get in touch.

https://medium.com/skydio/skydio-2-drone-industry-34b5634d48...

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#57

Post by HALtheWise »

JorgeGT wrote: post #34
HALtheWise wrote: post #24

I'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.

What is your policy towards avoiding restricted airspace? If flying autonomously the drone enters a restricted airspace (without specific user direction to do so) could Skydio be hold responsible? Any user (or AI!) sharing the airspace should carefully read and follow FAA rules https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ or the local laws, a point that is seldom mentioned by some sellers.

This is one of the reasons we don't let the drone keep following for very long if the connection is lost to the phone or beacon controlling it. As a person operating the drone, it's your job to know local and national regulations and follow them.

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#58

Post by xtagon »

HALtheWise wrote: post #53
xtagon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears to not have a 3-axis gimbal for the front camera, in the promo photos. Yet the demo footage is stable. How is video stabilization accomplished? Does it use the 4K cameras all around the airframe for the actual footage and not just navigation inputs?

We have a 3-axis gimbal, the footage comes from the front camera. Pics: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-a...

Thank you for the pics! That is a very unique gimbal design :-)

Re: Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI

#59

Post by HALtheWise »

cultofmetatron wrote: post #37

looks 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?

What'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.
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