Drones have been in the market for some time but still, they couldn’t become a mainstream technology for the users at large. It is principally because the users face unwanted hardships in flying drones and preventing these drones from crashing on the ground. This is precisely the problem the Skydio drone will solve. It came up with Skydio R1 which is a completely autonomous drone for the consumers at large.
It is just not autonomous, it is an intelligent drone as well. It can sense the world around you and can also predict the things that can happen. This makes it very closely comparable to the autonomous cars. It moves on its own based on the intelligent predictions, just the way self-pilot cars move on the road. That’s really awesome, isn’t it? But wait. There are several other aspects that make his drone a truly unique self-flying device.
More than just following a subject
Earlier we have seen many drones coming up with follow-me function. Drones like the DJI Mavic Pro and DJI Mavic Air can follow a subject running ahead tracking the movement and actions of the subject. Well, R1 can do such following quite well. But it can do a lot more than that. It can navigate throughout your surrounding by automatically ditching obstacles while just not losing the sight of you as the subject. That means, when you are engaged in adventures, it can continue shooting all your activities while taking care of its own flying actions.
Impressive specs of Skydio R1
As the self-pilot drone, it is built with an autonomous engine. This autonomous engine enriched with artificial intelligence, computer vision technology and robotics offers a robust system to help the drone function and fly automatically. Unlike many other devices claiming to offer an autonomous feature for R1 this autonomy is not a secluded feature but is a core element of the drone.
Obviously, to fly with precise autonomous capabilities, it needs a lot of cameras to constantly capture the surroundings. To meet this demand R1 is loaded with as much as 13 cameras positioned all around its the drone frame. Apart from fulfilling the need of constantly recognising and mapping the world around it also captures vivid video footage with these cameras.
The drone is capable of shooting clean 4K video at 30 frames per second (fps), or 1080p video at 60fps or 30fps. When it comes to the battery life which remained a key consideration for drones, the Skydio R1 doesn’t excel too much. It offers an average flight time of 16 minutes with a single charge. Each of the R1 units offers two batteries and this actually allows you to fly the drone for twice for the duration entitled to a single battery. The R1 drone comes with a Nvidia Jetson TX1 processor and a 256-core chip equipped for AI computing. As for storage space, you have 64GB inbuilt storage space.
Controls and app
Unlike most of the drones available in the market, the R1 can be run manually without a remote control. The Skydio app which is available for both iOS and Android allows you to control the drone right through the smartphone app. There is a standalone landing function which is important to land the drone on the ground when required.
The flying speed
When it comes to flying speed, the R1 is capable of flying at stunning 25 miles per hour. For capturing the video from the drone, you have as many as eight cinematic modes to select. There is a mode called Orbit which allows the drone to circle around a subject. The Side mode allows the drone flying beside you while the Lead mode allows the drone taking lead ahead of the moving subject.
Price and release date
The Skydio R1 will have a very ambitious price tag which will be around $2,499 for the limited Frontier Edition. Obviously, at just half the price you have several awesome drone choices, though none of them is as equipped and autonomous as this. The drone is available for the buyers in the US and Canada through Skydio.com.
Final thoughts
The drone is certainly one with a truly cutting edge and nifty capabilities and naturally anyone willing to go for a drone that can be controlled effortlessly for shooting will find it interesting. But heavy price tag can seriously be a deterrent for the buyers of this drone.
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