Taking videos of sailing boats

[Nick]

I have a Potensic Atom with 3 axis gimbal and I would really like to be able to fly it from a sailing boat moving at up to 5mph.

Taking off may be the harder problem -
- I can take it off from a swim platform at the back of the boat so will be able to easily fly away from the boat's path.
- I've tested and the drone is happy taking off from a platform inclined at 15 degrees. However, if I try to hand hold a board with the drone sitting on it (to emulate the movement the boat will impart) it won't take off, giving the orange error message "Preparing the IMU - keep the drone stationary"

Landing -
- There is a large, reasonably horizontal, canvas canopy over a lot of the boat. I have been able to take off and land from this canopy when the boat is stationary but will the drone object to landing on a moving surface? or will it fly upwards when it detects the surface (in the same way as it does if the drone is hovering and you bring your hand upwards from under the drone)?

Before choosing a Potensic drone I had seen various YouTube videos showing how drones can be launched and landed from a boat - I appreciated that it is not easy and that there are risks (just as there are with flying into a tree or building!) but I didn't appreciate that it would potentially be impossible with a Potensic drone.

Any advice appreciated,
Nick

 

[phph001]

I think you will really be pushing your luck here. You could probably get away with launching from an assistant's steady hand, but the visual positioning system does not work over moving objects (page 8 of the manual)

https://www.adorama.com/col/productManuals/POTAPM141111.pdf

so you will have to fly the drone downwards from astern to the landing surface. Return-to-home is never going to work.

 

[Nick]

I suspect there may be a sensitive accelerometer within the drone. If I place the drone on a 0.5m x 0.5m board which is on the ground, the drone takes off fine as you would expect. If I lift the board and try to hold the board steady, it won't take off and I get the orange error message "Preparing the IMU - keep the drone stationary" I don't think this is the visual positioning system as all it can see is the board

 

[phph001]

I suspect there may be a sensitive accelerometer within the drone. If I place the drone on a 0.5m x 0.5m board which is on the ground, the drone takes off fine as you would expect. If I lift the board and try to hold the board steady, it won't take off and I get the orange error message "Preparing the IMU - keep the drone stationary" I don't think this is the visual positioning system as all it can see is the board

I suggest you apply the old-fashioned method of taking off. Instead of pushing the button just push the throttle joystick up. Once in the air it might be happy.

 

[Nick]

'fraid that doesn't work with an Atom, have to bring both joysticks down and inwards (which triggers the IMU error if it detects the slightest movement) before it will take off.

 

[Nick]

I suggest you apply the old-fashioned method of taking off. Instead of pushing the button just push the throttle joystick up. Once in the air it might be happy.

 

[phph001]

'fraid that doesn't work with an Atom, have to bring both joysticks down and inwards (which triggers the IMU error if it detects the slightest movement) before it will take off.

Then the entire startup procedure up to that point would have to be on land. That's no bad thing, because you can practise your up and down without risk of losing the drone in the water

 

[Brutalwarpig]

I don't have experience with a Potensic drone but I recently launched my drone from my boat. I wanted to see how well the Air 3 would track and follow my boat. I didn't have any trouble getting airborne. However, landing on the boat proved impossible. I was stationary as much as possible but it still wouldn't land on the boat.

 

[phph001]

I don't have experience with a Potensic drone but I recently launched my drone from my boat. I wanted to see how well the Air 3 would track and follow my boat. I didn't have any trouble getting airborne. However, landing on the boat proved impossible. I was stationary as much as possible but it still wouldn't land on the boat.

I'm intrigued by this so please tell us more. What did it do instead of landing on the boat? I would have flown it in from the stern, keeping with the boat's speed and dipping the altitude gently

 

[Brutalwarpig]

I was doing my best to keep the boat stationary and there weren't any other boats in sight. The water was calm other than the wake my boat created. I can only assume that there was enough motion that the downward lidar couldn't create a stable 3D map of the landing area so it refused to land. It may have been possible to catch it by hand but I've never done that successfully on land. Considering I have about $1700 invested in the Air 3/RC2 FlyMore kit, I didn't want to risk damaging or losing my drone to the lake. As far as I know I would have had to kill the motors in flight and hope I was able to catch the drone. Instead I let the Air 3 continue to follow my boat until I reached a small floating dock and landed it there. Even this was sketchy because the dock surface was solid aluminum with steel beams. At first the UAV hesitated but then landed safely.

 

[phph001]

I was doing my best to keep the boat stationary and there weren't any other boats in sight. The water was calm other than the wake my boat created. I can only assume that there was enough motion that the downward lidar couldn't create a stable 3D map of the landing area so it refused to land. It may have been possible to catch it by hand but I've never done that successfully on land. Considering I have about $1700 invested in the Air 3/RC2 FlyMore kit, I didn't want to risk damaging or losing my drone to the lake. As far as I know I would have had to kill the motors in flight and hope I was able to catch the drone. Instead I let the Air 3 continue to follow my boat until I reached a small floating dock and landed it there. Even this was sketchy because the dock surface was solid aluminum with steel beams. At first the UAV hesitated but then landed safely.

If we theorise that the drone would not land because of a moving lidar map of the water, how about persuading it to land on an inflatable dinghy towed behind?

 

[Brutalwarpig]

I'm intrigued by this so please tell us more. What did it do instead of landing on the boat? I would have flown it in from the stern, keeping with the boat's speed and dipping the altitude I lined the drone up with the area of the boats floor that I intended to land on, brought it down to 24-30 inches above the surface and held the left stick (control style 2). Regardless of how long I held the stick down, the drone would not go any lower. I know that older Phantom drones had the option of turning the downward lidar off and I suspect that if I had the ability to turn the lidar off on my Air 3, the drone would have decreased altitude until it was physically stopped by the boat deck. However my Air 3 and Mini 3 do hot have that option.

 

[Brutalwarpig]

If we theorise that the drone would not land because of a moving lidar map of the water, how about persuading it to land on an inflatable dinghy towed behind?

I don't think the surface was the problem as I had brought a large flat piece of thick cardboard that I positioned on the inboard engine/bilge area hood. That area is flat with almost no slope. I'm speculating that the slight movement of the boat was enough to mess up the 3d modeling of the landing area. This is purely conjecture. I may be way off but that's the only theory I have been able to come up with.

 

[Brutalwarpig]

I tried landing on the cardboard and got the same result.