Vertical & Horizontal Wandering - After IMU and Vision Calibration

[sivart]

Hey guys,

I am attempting to make a hyperlapse where I slowly (0.2 mph) dolly the camera inward.

Yesterday this caused extreme wandering at around 30 ft AGL; however, there was a warning about vision system calibration that I ignored. I did use the DJI Assistant 2 app on a computer to fully calibrate the vision systems, and then performed an IMU calibration, followed by a gimbal calibration using the remote and DJI Go 4 app.

Today I attempted this again, in a different location, however -- was at 62 ft AGL; Wind is relatively calm at 20 ft AGL, 5 mph, gusting to 10 mph.

Perhaps it seemed a bit better, but there was still quite a bit of wandering.

Is this normal? Even with stabilization, it's super awkward because of how it's pinned to compensate for altitude adjustments.

Before Stabilization:

After Stabilization:

Unless I'm just totally doing something wrong with all of the different stabilization techniques...

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

What software are you using for post?

 

[sivart]

Davinci Resolve 15. Have tried stabilizing using different settings on the automatic stabilizer, and manual stabilization using point tracking, and cloud tracking.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

In Davinci I've had the best luck using the "Similarity" option of the Automatic Stabilizer. I've been using Version 14, haven't upgraded to 15 yet.

 

[sivart]

In Davinci I've had the best luck using the "Similarity" option of the Automatic Stabilizer. I've been using Version 14, haven't upgraded to 15 yet.

Yeah, similarity did produce a bit better results for the foreground trees, but then the background and clouds are changing so much to compensate for the movement of the drone.

DJI support isn't a ton of help -- all they keep saying is "calibrate gimbal"...

Maybe this is normal behavior of the drone? Guess I can try <50 ft to let the vision systems try and do a position hold.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

I always use Litchi when doing my Hyperlapses so I'm completely hands-off when flying, this keeps any twitching of your thumbs while flying out of the equation. If you don't have Litchi you can try the Tap-To-Fly mode or even the built in waypoint modes in DJI GO. Here's one of my Litchi Hyperlapses using VLM (Virtual Litchi Mission) and Google Earth to visualize it before flying.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=879683565567243

 

[sivart]

This actually was using the DJI Go 4 app on Android with two waypoints. It was a completely hands-off autonomous flight. Perhaps the speed (being 0.2 MPH) caused some of this?

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

This actually was using the DJI Go 4 app on Android with two waypoints. It was a completely hands-off autonomous flight. Perhaps the speed (being 0.2 MPH) caused some of this?

Could be, I typically do mine at 2 miles per hour with photographs every 2 seconds, but I typically cover more area then what you were doing in your video.

 

[sivart]

Something else interesting, I went out for another fly -- immediately after launching, very nominal wind, I recorded a video with my phone of the drone attempting to hover approx. 3ft off the ground.

Does this seem like normal behavior? Obviously, the footage was "smooth" because of the gimbal -- but there is clear wandering while it attempts to stay locked in hover.

This is with no controller input, other than the yaw adjustment, and then at the end moving to another location to hover.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

Something else interesting, I went out for another fly -- immediately after launching, very nominal wind, I recorded a video with my phone of the drone attempting to hover approx. 3ft off the ground.

Does this seem like normal behavior? Obviously, the footage was "smooth" because of the gimbal -- but there is clear wandering while it attempts to stay locked in hover.

This is with no controller input, other than the yaw adjustment, and then at the end moving to another location to hover.

It will wander a little especially the closer you get to the ground, it doesn't seem too far off from what mine does that low to the ground. The more I review your video the more I think you just need to update your method. 0.2mph is way too slow. Speed it up between 1.5 and 2mph. What frequency where you taking photos? Again I do mine at 2mph with photos every 2 seconds. This gives you 1 second of video for 1 minute of flight time.

 

[sivart]

Here is one that I just did at around 3mph, photos are every 2s.

It's "OK" but still a bit shaky.

 

[sivart]

Here is another video of it hovering. This is after talking with support. I was able to get the DJI Assistant app to run long enough to downgrade the version of the firmware, then re-upgrade followed by an IMU calibration per their instructions.

Is this abnormal and something I should send for repair?