Hello everyone,
I'm very excited about all the potential applications for the Follow-Me mode some drones offer these days.
I love soccer and I play an about 4 soccer matches a week.
I really want a drone that can autonomously follow a soccer ball during a match so after each game I can replay the best moments of the game and use it to improve our team.
Is there any solution out there that can do this already?
If not.. what kind of technology would be required to accomplish this task?
Thanks!
Replies
Realistically, you'd probably be better off with something like a pixy and a gimbal mounted camera on a tall tripod.
http://charmedlabs.com/default/?p=384
To do it wwith a quad, you'd have to deal with changing batteries every 10 minutes, not to mention the danger associated with flying a quad over people who may or may not have given their permission.
Thanks Mike,
I'm going to look into the pixy and gimbal alternative.
Depending on the total weight of your system, you coudl use a low altitude tethered ballon - just run it up on a 20m or so line. The problem you'd have then is the gimbal reaction - how to rotate something relative to the balloon that's far from rigid.
The balloon could be anchored using 3 lines forming a pyramid to stabilize it.
Probably the simplest solution would be a telescopic pole but you'd never get as exciting footage as from a quad following the action.
In a couple of years both reliability and battery life should be good enough to permit safe full recordings of a match. Each half is 45 mins so we still have a ways to go. Can't wait!