5+ Follow Me drones & their nooks and corners
Suppose I can play around while shooting myself from up above. I wish I could do that. Worry no more because I will be revealing all about that today. There exist such drones in the market. It’s called Follow-Me Drone.
What is a follow-me drone?
As the name suggests, the drone that follows a human/moving object autonomously is a follow-me drone. Moreover, it can dodge hurdles on the path on its own without losing focus on the tacked being. The best part is that this Uncrewed Air Device doesn’t require human attention.
How does a follow me drone works?
Location, camera and multiple Obstacle detecting sensors are installed in the body to achieve this feature. A new technology is evolved with all these and GPS on ground device. This technology is named active tracking technology. Before the development of this follow-me Active recognition feature, drones depended only on the image sensors. Which in turn made it loose following human beyond any obstacle. Thanks to obstacle detection sensors, it can easily avoid obstacles. In addition, it can generate images/videos just like you’ve imagined. Based on tracking activity, these UAVs can be differentiated as follows:
- Orbit – This type of UAV orbits the subject
- Circle – this encircles around the operand for a full 360 degrees visual shot
- Active Track – perfect for running, cycling and other fast-moving action shots
- Profile – Allows a user to track the subject in frame from a certain angle
Origin of follow me drone:
Object tracking has been in the market for a long time. But the issue is with obstacles that may come to the follower’s path. Hence this caused said idea into a dream for a longer duration. When DJI launched their Phantom 4 drone with an obstacle detection sensor, things changed. What, a sensor only to detect obstacles.! Yes, you heard it right. DJI revolutionized the market with Phantom 4. With its “TapFly” mode, it can fly to any location pointed on the screen. That too without colliding with any obstacle. DJI achieve this with the on-device camera and location sensors. In contrast, the others were still relying on the GPS of the ground device counterpart. Thus, choosing a moving object or a human to follow makes it the first-ever Follow-Me drone.
Follow me drones today:
Some of the best follow-me drones available today in the market are as follows:
- Skydio 2+
- DJI Mavic 3
- Autel EVO II Pro
- Walkera Vitus
- DJI Air 2S
- Parrot Anafi
Now, Let’s see some features of these drones.
Skydio 2+:
One of the finest available follow-me drones is the market is undoubtedly Skydio 2+. This drone is equipped with six, 200-degree colour cameras. On top of that This virtual companion of your is theoretically crash proof. Two more accessory the controller and the Beacon has to be collected separately to have all efficiency. Unlike older devices its camera got a focus lock on you while the other are looking out for the path.
DJI Mavic 3:
If your pick is not only just a follow-me drone but a better camera too then this should be your pick. Although this needs you to have a fat budget to own it. This baby comes with six fish eye vision sensor and two wide angle sensors. In addition to that, an integrated dual camera system with custom Hasselblad L2D-20c aerial camera and a 28x Hybrid Zoom Tele Camera are sweet attachments. Moreover, this professional grade 4/3CMOS sensor in 24mm prime lenses gives it a higher dynamic range and resolution. On top of that an awesome 46 minutes battery life gives it an edge over the others.
Autel EVO II Pro:
Autel Robotics’ EVO II is another note worthy competitor. With its 1’ large CMOS sensor, 82-degree field of view 20 MP camera, EVO II sets the standard high for high image quality in small drones. In addition to that with a whooping 7200mAh battery life it can provide max 40 mins of flight time. Moreover, its Omnidirectional Binocular Sensing System makes it virtually all crash proof.
Walkera Vitus:
Walkera is a well-known drone manufacturer (more so in the United States than in the United Kingdom), and their latest product, the Vitus, ranks with the Mavic Air and the Parrot Anafi in terms of mobility and quality. This drone is capable of some high-quality videography while being light on the budget. With help of GPS and GLONASS this super steady drone can use active tracking recognition follow-me mode. Moreover, circle, sport, way-point are few of the modes how it can perform follow-me style. Because of a speed of 45KMH the Vitus could keep up with sports with moderate speed engagement. Portability is one of the greatest features for this drone.
DJI Air 2S:
Another entry from DJI. This light weight version sports powerful autonomous functions. This all-in-one air power house comes with 1’ CMOS sensor large 2.4μm pixels to give you best in image or video quality. In addition to that Air 2S is capable of 5.4K/30fps and 4K/60fps videography.
Parrot Anafi:
Parrot with its Anafi packed a beast for the buck. Even though Parrot has some notorious feedback for buggy software past years. This time the dedicated app FreeFlight 6 works seamlessly with Anafi. With its 2.8x lossless zoom capability brings it right in the steps of best follow me drone.
Be it vlogging or simple memory collection, no matter what ever you are planning to achieve. With your drone follow-me is always nice to have feature. That makes you enjoy your actions worry free. And before buying one, you know where to look at the list for best ones.
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