Hi there,
I am seeking advice regarding an application I have in mind. It is about monitoring road traffic using drones.
What I am looking for is a drone capable to fly unsupervised along pre-set flight path, at fixed altitude and send my software a constant feed of photos of the street exactly below it.
The drone must fly without any human intervention or supervision. I (or software I write) will be sitting at my office and expect to receive photos of the street as well as the location of the drone at the time the photo was taken.
So,
1) is there technology to achieve fully automatic taking off, flying on fixed path specified by a set of coordinates? Additionally, when battery is nearly empty automatically land at pre-set location for change of battery. After change of battery, take off and continue. Do that 10 hours / day.
2) Is there already some equipment for transmitting picture taken every 1 second to my office? What's the maximum distance, what kind of receiver should I have at my office. Is that via internet/public wifi/4G network or via build-in transmitter. We are in a city with public wifi available, 4G network also.
3) Can I or software that I write, control the drone from my office using my laptop? For example I may ask the drone where are you? And then tell it "OK move to this location now". I do not want to be below the drone or have visual contact with it whenever I give it instructions. Ideailly control of the drone and analysis of the photos will be done by software while I will be playing at the beach. What is the maximum distance for such communication?
4) Are there issues with security of communication and security of drone, i.e. hijacking it?
5) I envisage the drone to be at 75-100 metres high. That's higher than any other tall building in the area. And I also envisage the drone to land for recharging batteries on top of a high building (rather than on ground).
6) Is there some kind of robotic battery changer available? That is, the drone lands at pre-set spot, robot arm removes battery and places it in the charger, then takes other full battery and inserts it into the drone. Robot sends me signal that battery change is done and I (or my software) instructs the drone to take off.
First I would like to know whether the ideas above can really work in practice and if you can suggest specific drone models etc.
I am seeking advice regarding an application I have in mind. It is about monitoring road traffic using drones.
What I am looking for is a drone capable to fly unsupervised along pre-set flight path, at fixed altitude and send my software a constant feed of photos of the street exactly below it.
The drone must fly without any human intervention or supervision. I (or software I write) will be sitting at my office and expect to receive photos of the street as well as the location of the drone at the time the photo was taken.
So,
1) is there technology to achieve fully automatic taking off, flying on fixed path specified by a set of coordinates? Additionally, when battery is nearly empty automatically land at pre-set location for change of battery. After change of battery, take off and continue. Do that 10 hours / day.
2) Is there already some equipment for transmitting picture taken every 1 second to my office? What's the maximum distance, what kind of receiver should I have at my office. Is that via internet/public wifi/4G network or via build-in transmitter. We are in a city with public wifi available, 4G network also.
3) Can I or software that I write, control the drone from my office using my laptop? For example I may ask the drone where are you? And then tell it "OK move to this location now". I do not want to be below the drone or have visual contact with it whenever I give it instructions. Ideailly control of the drone and analysis of the photos will be done by software while I will be playing at the beach. What is the maximum distance for such communication?
4) Are there issues with security of communication and security of drone, i.e. hijacking it?
5) I envisage the drone to be at 75-100 metres high. That's higher than any other tall building in the area. And I also envisage the drone to land for recharging batteries on top of a high building (rather than on ground).
6) Is there some kind of robotic battery changer available? That is, the drone lands at pre-set spot, robot arm removes battery and places it in the charger, then takes other full battery and inserts it into the drone. Robot sends me signal that battery change is done and I (or my software) instructs the drone to take off.
First I would like to know whether the ideas above can really work in practice and if you can suggest specific drone models etc.