Here is some footage that was shot exclusively using the automated capabilities of the drone without any other people assisting. The drones controller and phone is strapped to the tank bag of my motorcycle so that I could start, stop, and make any tweaks while riding. To ease with the controls and maintain use of the touch interface of my phone, I used my open fingered mountain bike gloves.
Some notes and lessons learned:
1. On a few occasions the drone would lose track and I would have to stop and manually bring it back in and restart the acquisition. This requires glancing down on a frequent basis while riding to verify the drone is still following you
2. I found it works best with ActiveTrack in "Parallel" follow mode.
3. For the drone to properly recognize you, it is important that you bring it in fairly closely when starting out, otherwise it might complain that Activetrack only recognizes people or motor vehicles. I think my riding jacket helped with the tracking due to some large reflective patches that the drone is able to more easily identify.
4. So far, I have had to keep the speed down below 20~25 mph in order for the drone to keep up.
5. The drone does a pretty good job in following the terrain of the hills, adjusting its altitude accordingly.
6. In some limited experiments riding briefly under/past a tree, as expected the drone will lose you. It can also get confused if you pass another vehicle, including one going in the opposite direction.
7. Keep in mind when the battery gets low enough, it will try to fly back to the original home point, which after riding could be miles away. So it is important to stop the tracking before it gets to that point, otherwise you will have to quickly stop the motorcycle and abort the automatic return to home and bring it back to you manually.
Some notes and lessons learned:
1. On a few occasions the drone would lose track and I would have to stop and manually bring it back in and restart the acquisition. This requires glancing down on a frequent basis while riding to verify the drone is still following you
2. I found it works best with ActiveTrack in "Parallel" follow mode.
3. For the drone to properly recognize you, it is important that you bring it in fairly closely when starting out, otherwise it might complain that Activetrack only recognizes people or motor vehicles. I think my riding jacket helped with the tracking due to some large reflective patches that the drone is able to more easily identify.
4. So far, I have had to keep the speed down below 20~25 mph in order for the drone to keep up.
5. The drone does a pretty good job in following the terrain of the hills, adjusting its altitude accordingly.
6. In some limited experiments riding briefly under/past a tree, as expected the drone will lose you. It can also get confused if you pass another vehicle, including one going in the opposite direction.
7. Keep in mind when the battery gets low enough, it will try to fly back to the original home point, which after riding could be miles away. So it is important to stop the tracking before it gets to that point, otherwise you will have to quickly stop the motorcycle and abort the automatic return to home and bring it back to you manually.