I wish it could do this.

[boludo]

Maybe wishful thinking but I don't see why this can't be done soon in the near future.

I record a lot over water and ocean and many times filming people for fun surfing waves. Sometimes it's better to get closer to the water for more action but it can be a bit nerve racking at times.

The P3 has some sort of sensor on the underside for indoors, right? It would be nice if I could program it to not go below x amount of feet. Example if I get within 15' it will not go down any further to risk sinking it. To land you have some override for landing mode.

Anyways, is it just me, or would this be a nice feature to have?
Thanks!

 

[donco234]

I hear you, I also film over water a lot. It would be nice if you could enable this feature or disable it for landing or maybe have it auto disable when it is very near the home point. Might even be nice over crowds or other sensitive areas. Good One

 

[bbfpv]

Problem is the sensors depend on a clear, stable pattern to determine where it is. Since water is constantly moving, this will never be the case. It also only kicks in when the bird is under approx 9 feet.

 

[DBS]

The optical flow sensor (camera) depends on a clear stable pattern... but the altitude is just altrasonic... works very well over water... all the way back to the AR Drone days.

 

[edonovanl]

I am still trying to build up the nerve to fly and film over water - I live on a barrier island and just haven't had the nerve to take my +v3 to the beach or fly out over the bays....working on it though....

 

[bbfpv]

Can you explain? Thought I got it right.

 

[bbfpv]

The optical flow sensor (camera) depends on a clear stable pattern... but the altitude is just altrasonic... works very well over water... all the way back to the AR Drone days.

Can you explain? Thought I got it right.

 

[DBS]

Optical flow locks on targets on the ground visually to stabilize forward, back, left, right, positioning... altitude is controlled by listening to it's own ultrasonic ping of the ground surface... like a bat.

Any reasonably flat surface will give the echo needed to stabilize altitude... with the AR Drone, long thick grass was the worst place to be for altitude hold... water works great... the craft will rise and fall with the waves going by at the beach.

 

[Kasra A]

They're supposed to make the SDK available for developers. You can hope someone comes up with an idea.
I'm not sure if the Ultrasound sensor can be used for this specific purpose, but maybe GPS is accurate enough to define a height floor.

 

[Paul K]

there is sonar sensor for multi rotors ,but unfortunately not compatible with DJI products

 

[Meta4]

I'm not sure if the Ultrasound sensor can be used for this specific purpose, but maybe GPS is accurate enough to define a height floor.

DJI don't use GPS for altitude at all - because GPS altitude accuracy is very poor.
The barometric altimeter in your Phantom is much better.
Hover Accuracy

• Vertical: +/- 10cm
• Horizontal: +/- 1m

GPS altitude would be something like +/- 15m

 

[wkf94025]

Optical flow locks on targets on the ground visually to stabilize forward, back, left, right, positioning... altitude is controlled by listening to it's own ultrasonic ping of the ground surface... like a bat.

Any reasonably flat surface will give the echo needed to stabilize altitude... with the AR Drone, long thick grass was the worst place to be for altitude hold... water works great... the craft will rise and fall with the waves going by at the beach.

This sounds awesome. I also film surfing, and would love to have a "hard deck" feature 10' above the immediate surface below me. Love the idea of the quad rising up in real time in response to incoming swell.

So is the P3 technology based on optical, ultrasonic, or sonar, or some combination of those? Pardon my ignorance if ultrasonic and sonar are synonymous.

Kelly

 

[Meta4]

So is the P3 technology based on optical, ultrasonic, or sonar, or some combination of those? Pardon my ignorance if ultrasonic and sonar are synonymous.

It's a combination.
In normal flight it uses the barometric altimeter - same as what you are used to already.
Fly indoors, low to the ground, and in GPS-free areas with Vision Positioning technology. Visual and ultrasonic sensors scan the ground beneath your Phantom 3 for patterns, enabling it to identify its position and move accurately.

 

[DBS]

Love the idea of the quad rising up in real time in response to incoming swell.

Don't bet your P3P on that though... AR Drone would do it but this bird has it's own firmware and flight control... it might not respond the same way... good way to test would be maybe hover over an umbrella and lift the umbrella up and down and see if it tries to avoid it... or maybe a card table etc... AR Drone was good at that... P3 might not exhibit the same behavior at all.

 

[wkf94025]

It's a combination.
In normal flight it uses the barometric altimeter - same as what you are used to already.
Fly indoors, low to the ground, and in GPS-free areas with Vision Positioning technology. Visual and ultrasonic sensors scan the ground beneath your Phantom 3 for patterns, enabling it to identify its position and move accurately.

Thanks, Meta4, that is helpful. Any sense whether the Vision Positioning system is: 1) always on; 2) only on when enabled by pilot; or 3) enabled automatically by FC when GPS drops out or below some threshold? Independent of how activated, once activated, does it override baro? Or is the algorithm a blending of inputs from baro, optical, and ultrasonic?

Kelly

 

[boludo]

DJI don't use GPS for altitude at all - because GPS altitude accuracy is very poor.
The barometric altimeter in your Phantom is much better.
Hover Accuracy

• Vertical: +/- 10cm
• Horizontal: +/- 1m

GPS altitude would be something like +/- 15m

Thanks everyone for your feedback and comments.

It seems with Hover Accuracy Vertical of +/- 10cm, one would be able to hover 15' the water and not even touch the left stick, use the right stick only to follow and surfer without any worry of dumping it into the water, right? That's tough for me to let go of the left stick but truth is there is probably less error by the craft than by me.