what is your Obstacle avoidance experience?

[Verdrone]

On my first time using it I hit a tree branch and crashed and broke my drone. I am looking for advice as to not crash again. I will avoid leafless trees. What are it's other weakness's?

 

[vindibona1]

I guess the sensors need something substantial to sense. My Mavic 2 avoided hitting the dome of a building once while flying a Litchi mission.

I recently watched a video of a Skydio drone following two guys on a bicycle and I guess it didn't sense a power line (or was it a tree?) but after it did some spectacular following it too crashed on its maiden voyage.

 

[bumper]

None of DJI's drones come with common sense built in. You're supposed to provide that - smile!

 

[lannes]

There is some guidance in the manual

 

[volition]

Decent Contrast & Size is neccesary.
Regarding size, works along with speed. Smaller things can be recognised at slower speeds, Yet if you have something the same size but travel faster towards it by the time it recognises the obstacle it may not be able to put the brakes on.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Poor light is detrimental too.
Do not set out to fly where it is absolutely necessary that it must work with 100% reliability and where you are simultaneously pushing the boundaries of what it is capable of. As in some of the early skydio 2 videos where you tubers were pushing the limits and then whining when it failed.

 

[boblui]

I will avoid leafless trees.

Avoid any trees, whether they have leaves or not.

The fact is you don't need obstcale avoidance. I turn it off on my M2P. Just hate the beeping when it's taking off and landing.

Does you car have obstacle avoidance capability ? probably not but I believe you very rarely crash your car and you know why. The same applies to flying drones.

 

[Lasidora]

If I'm flying a Litchi mission this time of the year in UK when the sun is very low in sky, I always switch OA off so it doesn't confuse the sun with a front facing object, I only found this out after a Litchi Mission a few months back where this actually happened on my MP2 & just as it went out of range it proceeded to stop & start moving approx 20 times within a 100m distance between two waypoints, luckily the battery power was sufficient to finish & get it back home, but after that I did a vision calibration & always switch OA off if the sun is a factor now.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

There are just to many incidents where new pilots have crashed relying on the OA

Really the only time I would ever consider using the OA is in an emergency RTH situation such as this one where the drone lost signal and only came back when the battery was low.

An example of it working its magic on the Phantom 4 pro .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain / Snow

 

[KB9Radio]

None of DJI's drones come with common sense built in. You're supposed to provide that - smile!

That was pretty much my thought as I read the question, but I was grabbing my hand and pulling back on my finger. The term VLOS also comes to mind.

 

[eaglesurfing]

Keep watching this forum and you will see all of the pilot errors then learn from them.

One of the most common is getting the pilot and photographer mixed up.

Pilot first... know your surroundings and then take the pics or video.

 

[Wilbur]

Been turned off for a few years now. Cruising speed is 30 mph vs. 20 mph. Altitude and situational awareness will save your bird.

 

[Reginald E Johnson]

None of DJI's drones come with common sense built in. You're supposed to provide that - smile!

Here here!

 

[devgrp]

You need to say what were the circumstances that made you crash. I fly in normal mode and I have avoid all obstacles when I fly through the forests ,creeks etc. Only time I had a small crash was when I first got the drone, I had it in slow mode and I flew towards a wall slowly to see if it would stop but it didnt and hit the wall. I was about 3ft above the deck so no damage.

 

[hiflyer201]

I leave it on strictly because of the unforeseen situation where it could avoid hitting another person. I know from personal experience that it will have you digging thru the sticker bushes and climbing trees if you count on it in active track

 

[devgrp]

I leave it on strictly because of the unforeseen situation where it could avoid hitting another person. I know from personal experience that it will have you digging thru the sticker bushes and climbing trees if you count on it in active track

I've used mine with active track and had it follow me around my yard with lots of trees and never had a problem

 

[Nakita Mosquita]

Had 2 crashes...both were with the Mavic Air with the sensors all active and both crashes occurred flying sideways. Sideways flying had much slower braking.

 

[hiflyer201]

. Sideways flying had much slower braking.

and zero obstacle avoidance on the Mavic Air 2

 

[rxlawdude]

Had 2 crashes...both were with the Mavic Air with the sensors all active and both crashes occurred flying sideways. Sideways flying had much slower braking.

I have been playing with Active Track in follow mode, and while it seems to work most of the time, I've had two incidents where all of a sudden the drone flies BACKWARDS and apparently blind to obstructions, as it came within inches of crashing into the house next door. It also didn't respond to controls until it cozied up to the house, when I was able to get stick control after pressing RTH to cancel the mode.

I'm sure it was something I did wrong, but I'll now experiment with AT in open fields.

 

[Dbez1]

On my first time using it I hit a tree branch and crashed and broke my drone. I am looking for advice as to not crash again. I will avoid leafless trees. What are it's other weakness's?

Spend a lot of time reading the mistakes of others on this forum. Then read the manual and find a nice open field to learn how to fly pretending that you don’t have obstacle avoidance. Best wishes.