Mavic Air Active Tracking Crash

[Yarko]

Hey All, flight #20 and I've had my first problem. I was using active tracking on a shoot with a friend, following his cafe racer bike in a secluded area at low speed. (vid can be seen on Skypixel, but not the crash itself, username Yarko) As my subject made a right turn up a slight grade the Air followed but did not maintain altitude relative to the rising road grade and before I could intervene it flew into the pavement with what was thankfully a glancing impact (remarkably nothing broke, just some scratches and chips). I'm surprised this occurred as I would have thought a. the Air would use its lower cameras to maintain a safe height and b. it could recognize the difference between its absolute altitude and altitude relative to ground level. I'm guessing I f-ed up, but I also thought the autopilot was meant to be relatively fool-proof. Any thoughts?

Was able to continue flying but cut the shoot short as a precaution.

 

[cyeung]

Unfortunately, the Mavic Air does not follow terrain. My Mavic Air's got some bruises as well from using ActiveTrack: As it was following me, I took a turn, and my Mavic Air went into a drone eater ... I mean ... tree.

 

[Moose1967]

Unfortunately, the Mavic Air does not follow terrain. My Mavic Air's got some bruises as well from using ActiveTrack: As it was following me, I took a turn, and my Mavic Air went into a drone eater ... I mean ... tree.

Drone eater - lol - treeeeeeeee

 

[Olav van Gerven]

What I have learned is, that the MA does NOT follow the relativ altitude of the terrain but stays on the altitude as you started it. That is why you have to actively follow the drone (visual) to be able to correct the altitude if requiered. Up to a certain extend, front or rear sensors might pick up rising terrain in front of them as an obstacle and stop the drone, as soon as it is flying in sidewards move, there are no sensors, which would explain why it crashed into the terrain.

 

[Moose1967]

I did some tests the other day too and almost hit a drone eater lol - active track for me only on flat terrain and in open areas !!! Works well with the boat !!

 

[Olav van Gerven]

I did some tests the other day too and almost hit a drone eater lol - active track for me only on flat terrain and in open areas !!! Works well with the boat !!

I saw a video of a professional crew a few weeks ago. They where following a surfer, wonderfull footage - untill there came this big, big wave. And it cam faster then the operator expected. Now they have 100 K$ submarine...

 

[cyeung]

With exception for just trying those functions out, I flew ALL my missions by hand. Here's my demo reel, if you're interested:

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[Yarko]

Thanks, all. looking at my data, I tried to pull up about 2 sec before impact but I guess I have to disable the AT mode first because it doesn't look like it listened to my input.

 

[vail]

I haven't tried active track with my MA, because I've seen a few too many active track crashes in youtube compilations. It doesn't dodge or maintain elevation the way you'd expect.