"Follow me" Mode is not working

[Rich]

Can you set follow me to use splines?

I just tested using 3dr default settings. If they want people to be impressed they should make it look good outmof the box!

For now I'll give them the benefit of doubt since I don't have a gimbal yet.

 

[erikgraham]

Speed helps. On an Iris+ I've done many Follow Me missions, following skiers, mountain bikers, boats, cars, etc.

Walking is always a herky jerky thing, though maybe that can be softened - I've never even tried. At least for the Iris+, its tuned out of the box more for action sports.

It takes a bit of time to find the right settings. For example, try following a skier who is turning regularly and the drone can get in a thing where its swinging wildly behind the skier, almost like its on the tip of a dog tail. If your trying to keep the altitude low, this can be nasty as the skier might make a turn and literally swing the drone directly into the woods. On the other hand, some of the modes, like tracking from the side work pretty well for skiing. In general, if the activity is the type where the drone can extrapolate heading and speed ahead of time, it will do better.

So walking about, swinging your phone around and turning a lot is basically what an Iris (and presumably a Solo) is the worst at following. From the drones point of view, your heading (think compass needle) is wildly fluctuating, and your going so slow it can't decide if you are gps glitching, standing still, or moving.

I guess I would just add that, like almost everything on a drone, there is a bit of an art to getting Follow Me just right. Yes its automatic and computer controlled, but to nail it you need to get in there as a human and tweak it.

 

[Rich]

I remember that one of the first Solo marketing videos showed a very unique feature for Follow Me, basically if you touched on your smart device's screen to a person or thing that had some outstanding features, like a green shirt, or a red hat, etc. it would be able to follow that person visually by using their a combination of the on board 1 GHz Linux computer and the other one in the controller (or at least I thought that was the implications of the video).

I thought this was a very impressive feature!

Now that the Solo is here, I don't see any reference to this type of visual 'follow me' feature. Was I dreaming? Will this feature every exist? Can anyone find that original Solo promotional video and post a link to it here? I haven't been able to find it again.

 

[erikgraham]

I remember that one of the first Solo marketing videos showed a very unique feature for Follow Me, basically if you touched on your smart device's screen to a person or thing that had some outstanding features, like a green shirt, or a red hat, etc. it would be able to follow that person visually by using their a combination of the on board 1 GHz Linux computer and the other one in the controller (or at least I thought that was the implications of the video).

I thought this was a very impressive feature!

Now that the Solo is here, I don't see any reference to this type of visual 'follow me' feature. Was I dreaming? Will this feature every exist? Can anyone find that original Solo promotional video and post a link to it here? I haven't been able to find it again.

I think you are talking about the Hexo (which incidentally is built based on pixhawk1 and arducopter, so its basically a 3DR drone). Anyway, I seem to recall some media hype and exposure around it a few months back.
https://hexoplus.com

 

[erikgraham]

I think you are talking about the Hexo (which incidentally is built based on pixhawk1 and arducopter, so its basically a 3DR drone). Anyway, I seem to recall some media hype and exposure around it a few months back.
https://hexoplus.com

Or maybe it was the Lily (also based on pixhawk, etc). I think that got a lot of press recently:

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[Rich]

I'm pretty sure it was a 3DR Solo... the scene I remember was something similar to a bunch of people at a park or other outdoor setting, the operator (maybe it was Colin) touched the smart phone/tablet screen to highlight a box around the target person (was he wearing a green or red shirt?), then the person continued to walk or bicycle away and the camera followed him, vs other people.

Maybe I was dreaming? LOL

I thought the narrative stated that the dual CPUs allowed them to do things like this that couldn't be done with other systems.

 

[nacjr]

It seems it is similar to the ROI function in that it always keeps what ever it is following in the shot. But t isn't a 'cookie crumb' track. When you turn, it will cut the corner and keep you in shot. It's interesting how it works though; it can also 'follow' in front of you or to the side. What ever position you start it at is the position it tries to keep while keeping you in the shot.

I always thought ROI meant Return on Investment. I may be the only one that doesn't know what it means in the Mission Planer reference. So, what does ROI represent?

Thanks

 

[erikgraham]

I always thought ROI meant Return on Investment. I may be the only one that doesn't know what it means in the Mission Planer reference. So, what does ROI represent?

Thanks

ROI = Region Of Interest

In Tower, you can drop a waypoint and then change it into an ROI. The camera will stay focused on the ROI for the rest of the mission (unless you drop a second ROI, in which case it will switch to that once it get there in the mission)

 

[rrmccabe]

Actually Erik, I think it stays focused on ROI until next waypoint. Thats the way mine is working.

 

[erikgraham]

Actually Erik, I think it stays focused on ROI until next waypoint. Thats the way mine is working.

Nah. I plan these missions all the time. Tower can be a little wonky though, especially if you drop an ROI and then try to insert nav waypoints behind it or do any re-ordering of waypoints.

Here is an example mission: Lets say I want to swoop in on a barn from far away and high up, then past it, then slowly circle around it, keeping the barn in view the whole time.

First I would drop a Nav waypoint near the start of my run.
Then I would drop an ROI waypoint and drag it over the barn.
Then I would drop a Nav waypoint at the start of my run, and continue to draw waypoints to fly past the barn, circle around etc. (recommend using spline way points for all nav waypoints).

After I launch the auto mission, the drone will fly to waypoint 1, then it will turn and tilt the camera to aim at the ROI (barn), then it will fly to the "starting" waypoint (which is really the second nav waypoint), with the camera already framed how I want it. And then of course it will execute the rest of the flyby keeping the barn in focus the whole time.

Now lets say after the barn, I want to continue the mission but have the drone now focus on a tree. I would just pick up the mission where i left off, adding a new ROI way point at the end of my current mission, and then create new Nav waypoints to do the tree fly over.

Now the drone will swoop in and around focused on the barn, then turn to the tree and swoop around that.

There are gotchas, though. When the drone switches to a new ROI it can do it rather abruptly. So you want to design your mission so that when you switch ROIs, the drone is already pretty much pointed at the next ROI.

Also, you can reduce your waypoint nav speed and increase the waypoint radius to get get a softer feel.

 

[rrmccabe]

Well I can show you a jerky video from today if you like.

As soon as it hit the next waypoint it was done. Moved on to a circle and did that 3 times and then back home. I have only done ROI twice and both times after the next waypoint it was flying with the camera towards the next waypoint.

As far as inserting or rearranging waypoints that is something I have not tried.

 

[rrmccabe]

@erikgraham, I am going to move this to the Tower thread. Will tag you.