We have spent the past year developing a system to fly drones over the internet. We now have a hexacopter that can be flown from anywhere in the world using a joystick via APM Planner or Mission Planner (working on an iPad app as well). The latency is below 500 msecs and the video quality is 720p w/ 25fps. Obviously the flying requires the drone to be flown at a location with decent cellular coverage but we have been optimizing the platform to handle the inconsistencies inherent in cellular data connections by load balancing the data between multiple LTE radios. A single cellular modem is just not sufficient for true FPV flying. The F550 is piloted using APM planner and a joystick right now but will transition to the iPad app once we have finished testing it. All the video and controls are routed thru a central relay server so there is no concern about firewalls, VPNs or IP addresses. We have tested the system cross country flying from San Francisco with the drone over a field outside Boston. It has been a lot harder than we anticipated but the system is working very well right now and we are looking at ways to commercialize the technology.
Any ideas or feedback would be appreciated.
Comments
Because we want to fly FPV over scenic locations without having to actually go there.
Ok but why HD to begin with ? I mean something like 640X400 would be more than adequate and the bandwith requirement is almost 4 times lower. Not to mentio that it's going to need less computing power for compression.
Also why FPV ? I mean any such platform should have an autopilot on board so would it make more sense to focus on developing an affordable and reliable 3/4g modem as alternative to standar telemetry and add a provision for low quality FPV as topping on the cake ?
Primarily for the best user experience possible. There is so much to see and enjoy while flying in HD not to mention easier to gauge distance. Our goal is 1080p but that isn't practical yet with most cellular coverage areas.
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