Follow me drone

[Vanquish S noise]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 06 February 2022 at 18:53

[V8 Animal]

Mavic 2 should do it. More 30mph though.

[StevieBee]

Mavic 2 pro has a 44mph top end - when set up correctly. The thing to watch is the rate of turn - not too much an issue on gentle bends but too tight and fast and it may lose where you are. And to get it to that sort of speed you need to disable the collision detection (IIRC) so open countryside OK, forest roads, and mountain passes, not so much.

And don't do what I did and press the auto return to home - it will go back to where you started which may be quite a way from where you've ended up! I managed to startle some ramblers when my drone descended from nowhere!

Slow recording and speeding up can work well. Best done on super-calm days to avoid any non linear movement of the drone which speeding up will accentuate. Plenty of tricks in edit to make work - stabilisation, optical flow... just have a play and see what you can get.

Brief example at the end of my feeble attempt at a car vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M82VjXZ_7Nc (scroll to around 9.07)

[Simpo Two]

This isn't a 'follow me' but it might give you some inspiration

https://fb.watch/aTIAn6gnc2/

(only available on Facebook I think)

[Tycho]

Simpo Two said:

This isn't a 'follow me' but it might give you some inspiration

https://fb.watch/aTIAn6gnc2/

(only available on Facebook I think)

I’m guessing this is done with a DJI FPV drone. They are expensive but a great bit of kit.

[thebraketester]

Have a look at Skydio drones

[StevieBee]

Vanquish S noise said:

StevieBee said:

Mavic 2 pro has a 44mph top end - when set up correctly. The thing to watch is the rate of turn - not too much an issue on gentle bends but too tight and fast and it may lose where you are. And to get it to that sort of speed you need to disable the collision detection (IIRC) so open countryside OK, forest roads, and mountain passes, not so much.

And don't do what I did and press the auto return to home - it will go back to where you started which may be quite a way from where you've ended up! I managed to startle some ramblers when my drone descended from nowhere!

Slow recording and speeding up can work well. Best done on super-calm days to avoid any non linear movement of the drone which speeding up will accentuate. Plenty of tricks in edit to make work - stabilisation, optical flow... just have a play and see what you can get.

Brief example at the end of my feeble attempt at a car vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M82VjXZ_7Nc (scroll to around 9.07)

Thanks, great info, i did think that when scanning the feature info so made me laugh when it caught you out

I was filming at a long abandoned airfield (Bradwell, Essex). There's a public access road that just leads to fields and a farm plus one 'proper' road that goes to the power station. I'd done a couple of runs with the drone following me and decided that was it. Stopped the car and automatically hit the 'H' button, forgetting that I'd started at the other end (and that you can override the command). As the crow - or drone - flies, it's no distance but in the car it's a good mile or so. I arrived to find a group of about 15 oldies looking puzzled at this thing that had just landed and more puzzled at this worried looking bloke in a silly plastic car that had just arrived sideways. Could of gone either way but they found it quite amusing and interested in what it was.

[Dogsey]

Surely filming yourself driving breaks the rules of drone flying in the UK given that you won't have visual line of sight to the drone (and if you do you'll be driving without looking where you are going) and will also not be in control of it?

[StevieBee]

Dogsey said:

Surely filming yourself driving breaks the rules of drone flying in the UK given that you won't have visual line of sight to the drone (and if you do you'll be driving without looking where you are going) and will also not be in control of it?

Comes down to the application of common sense. If you put the drone up and film a follow shot of you driving along a motorway, then clearly that's a bit dim and highly illegal. But a quiet road in open countryside or old airfield is little different to someone filming themselves running or on a mountain bike. It would be, though, advisable to have someone in the passenger seat with the remote control.

[STe_rsv4]

Skydio 2

Beats the DJI Mavic in every autonomous follow test.
Its not infallible but from every comparison video I've watched, its a lot better at tracking and obstacle avoidance than its counterpart.
This is from a DJI owner