Object Detection/Avoidance Reliability and Necessity for Beginner?

[marco99]

Looking to purchase my first drone, but have some questions on object detection and avoidance. Is object detection/avoidance highly recommended for a beginner? Are certain drones better at this than others? My main use will be flying both below and above forest canopies, researching animal movement patterns. Any advice or experience is appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I would suggest that below canopy flying is not really for the beginners, a beginner should be flying in WIDE OPEN spaces, well away from trees.
Besides 1) since the light levels are probably reduced when beneath the canopy, obstacle avoidance sensors may not have enough light to work.
I would also suggest that depending on sensors could lead to inattentive flying, you might get into the habit of relying on them and stop taking notice of what surrounds the drone.
Besides 2) under the canopy, even if good, functional obstacle avoidance does work you'd probably be picking up so many obstacles that any sensible movement would become impossible.
Besides 3) the noise of a low drone make spook your subjects.

 

[hiflyer201]

I started to list reasons that drone would not work well for your purpose, but I then realized that Phillius had pretty well covered them all.
Welcome to the forum! I hope you do decide to purchase a drone as I am sure you will find many ways that it will be useful...Plus it's a lot of fun. Good Luck!

 

[old man mavic]

@marco99 firstly welcome to the forum
flying beneath trees is one of the hardest things to do with a drone ,and to be perfectly honest with you, no amount of OA will guarantee that your drone will not crash ,there is also the fact that there will be reduced GPS reception under the trees ,and that means that the drones ability to stop without the GPS lock will be greatly reduced ,you would be better off with a hand held camera on a gimbal for such filming
and the other point i would like to make is even when you are flying above the trees you can still have issues from the trees blocking the signal between the drone and the RC ,unfortunately the moisture content of trees even those not in leaf can absorb a lot of the signal and cause it to reduce significantly
in reality trees and drones ,are not good bedfellows ,and require a lot of care when they are in close proximity to each other

 

[Don Testme]

Stay out of the trees and stay away from streets with power lines. Trees are most dangerous when they have lost their leaves for the winter. One minor contact with a twig and your drone is going down.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

For any beginner, yes, stay out of the trees. However, if you do choose to fly under or within a canopy, set your loss of signal action to Hover. Otherwise, you could rise up into the trees if your home point is remote from the drone's current location. That happened to me when my knuckle inadvertently hit the on/off button on the controller. Long story.
My advice is to study the manual and understand the various actions the aircraft will take when a loss of signal occurs.

 

[Starz]

Altitude is your buddy. The damage from 200 foot fall versus 60 foot won’t matter. You’ll still need some form of repair either way.
Another name for trees……”drone eater”.

 

[Dave Maine]

Obstacle detection is not perfect. Small branches, wires etc often are not detected. For a beginner, a false sense of security may be possible. As others suggest, starting your learning in a wide open area free of any drone magnets is the best way to start.

 

[Vic Moss]

It's best to learn without all of the safety features. That way you learn to rely on your own judgement and not the drone's features.

 

[DroneAlone57]

Looking to purchase my first drone, but have some questions on object detection and avoidance. Is object detection/avoidance highly recommended for a beginner? Are certain drones better at this than others? My main use will be flying both below and above forest canopies, researching animal movement patterns. Any advice or experience is appreciated.

Yes it was for me, got the Mavic Air2.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Welcome to the forum.
Some great replies above.
It’s good to have for some situations, but I’d hazard a guess and say for most flights you see here, it’s simply not needed / used.
(Set RTH right as it should be anyway for every flight.)
Keep in mind that close quarters flying you’ll need to turn OA off anyway to ensure stable, smooth flight, and especially when flying through things.
If it was me, I’d consider seriously the Mini 2 flymore, and if (when) you upgrade to a more featured drone one day, the Mini 2 will still be a great drone for many flights, or to take hiking or travelling light when needed.

 

[Crouching Leopard]

@marco99 firstly welcome to the forum
flying beneath trees is one of the hardest things to do with a drone ,and to be perfectly honest with you, no amount of OA will guarantee that your drone will not crash ,there is also the fact that there will be reduced GPS reception under the trees ,and that means that the drones ability to stop without the GPS lock will be greatly reduced ,you would be better off with a hand held camera on a gimbal for such filming
and the other point i would like to make is even when you are flying above the trees you can still have issues from the trees blocking the signal between the drone and the RC ,unfortunately the moisture content of trees even those not in leaf can absorb a lot of the signal and cause it to reduce significantly
in reality trees and drones ,are not good bedfellows ,and require a lot of care when they are in close proximity to each other

Also, the OA on most drones cant reliably detect all types of branches or groups of leaves. DJI tell me not reliable below about A4 paper size. My M2 pro has difficulty seeing spindly dead branches or the very thin leaves of certain types of Australian gum trees and bushes. It almost looks through them.

I do fly below trees but am closely watching and in manual mode with APAS on. Also, I fit prop guards. Above trees I check out and "heigh test" with 1 battery first to get an approximate idea of the height of the tallest tree, avoid trees altogether or check out the area first then give at least 10 metres clearance.