Greetings to the DIY Drones community!
My name is Adam Morrison, and I'm one of the co-founders of DroneRafts LLC. I wanted to introduce you all to our new and exciting product called WaterStrider. Since the early fall of last year, our team has been totally dedicated to developing and bringing to market an accessory for drones that allows effortless takeoffs and landings anywhere you want to go with your drone. This includes water, sand, snow, mud, deep grass, sloped surfaces and many other situations where you might find yourself.
As we immersed ourselves over the past few years in the industry, there are several operational issues that we've struggled with and that other drone owners we have interviewed have also struggled with. Many of these issues revolve around easing takeoffs and landings in areas that are absolutely beautiful for filming and photos but are not very friendly for takeoffs and landings. Operating in these situations frequently result in expensive camera damage or at least the inconvenience and expense of tip-overs and propeller breakage. On top of all of this, the frequency of people losing their drones in water while filming above and around water is truly staggering. Then there is the dangerous practice of hand launching and catching, which seems just fine until there is an inevitable mistake.
So, we set out to solve these problems with a fully engineered, lightweight and durable product that has a minimal impact to the actual job of taking aerial photos and video. We believe that the WaterStrider provides an awesome, balanced approach to solving these problems while providing massive added stability and protection to the drone and camera.
Current Status
We have already started low rate production of the WaterStrider. The product design and testing as well as our manufacturing and production processes are all worked out and validated. Our team is really experienced in product development, supply chain, and manufacturing. We didn't 'go live' with this product until we knew everything was ready.
We're currently running a Kickstarter campaign currently to raise the additional funds necessary for the more durable tooling needed for full-rate production. With a successful campaign, deliveries of WaterStrider will start next month (June 2016). You can learn a lot more about the product and our experienced team by reviewing the full campaign page and video at the following link.
WaterStrider: Perfect Footage. Confident Landings. Anywhere.
Our Kickstarter campaign ends on May 30th. It is our intent to deliver WaterStrider to all backers of the campaign before starting deliveries through other channels. It will take through at least July to complete these deliveries depending on the number of backers at the end of the campaign. This is the quickest way to get the product in your hands and onto your drone this summer.
Two weeks ago, we also did a public debut with four WaterStriders at AUVSI XPONENTIAL in New Orleans. This is one of the largest drone and UAS conferences in the world and thousands of people attend. We were able to get the WaterStrider into the hands of real drone users (other than ourselves) and demonstrate the product flying and landing on gravel and sloped surfaces in the demonstration area. The overall response to the product was fantastic. Here is a quick video compilation from the show.
A Few Common Questions
Our website and the Kickstarter page already address a number of common questions, but I'll post just a couple of the most common ones here.
What Drone Models Does It Work With?
Presently, we're fully validated on the DJI Phantom 3 (all variants) and the DJI Phantom 4. We'll be working other models as we see demand, so please let us know what other models you'd like to see.
Flight Time Reduction
In an indoor, side-by-side test we see approximately 30% reduction in flight time. We know how to make this impact less, but it requires a trade-off on the incredible durability and performance of the current product. We believe we've found a really nice balance of protection/durability, effortless takeoffs and landings, and flight time/handling.
With all of this said, in real-life flying situations we've found that in some cases we can increase our useful filming time by landing some distance away to 'rest' and save batteries (instead of hovering) while waiting for the situation to be perfect for filming. This can even be done on water! For example, with the stock drone we would never consider landing 200 yards away where you can't see the landing surface close-up, but its a regular occurrence in our flying with WaterStrider. In addition, we spend less time thinking about and setting up takeoffs and landings. You just set it on the ground or in the water and take off. When you want to land, you just land. This all saves a lot of time finding a landing spot or dragging out a landing pad or flying back and forth for landings.
Stability in Wind
We've recently posted a video on YouTube and our Kickstarter page showing operations with WaterStrider on the Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 in winds gusting to 31 mph. We recommend a wind limitation of 17-23 mph for the Phantom 3 and 23-28 mph for the more powerful Phantom 4. Check out the video!
How do I Know it Will Work?
We're confident that the WaterStrider will do what it was designed to do. To alleviate any concerns about this (we totally understand that we're a new product and company), we've included a guarantee to our Kickstarter campaign backers. If you're not happy with the product, return it to us within 30 days and we'll refund your pledge.
We're working hard to get the word out about the WaterStrider. DIY Drones is an amazing venue with wonderful content from experienced drone pilots. We're excited to be introducing the product to you!
Finally, we're happy to answer any questions and dialog with you on this thread about the product. I understand that this post may not have answered all of your questions. Check out the Kickstarter video and page and then post any questions or comments you have here. And if you're excited about the product, let us know that as well and please consider backing the campaign.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Adam Morrison
Co-Founder; Head of Engineering & Technology
DroneRafts LLC
Kickstarter Campaign Page
DroneRafts Web Site
DroneRafts YouTube Channel
Comments
@Fnoop Thanks for the information. We have already done some work and serious thinking about future plans. I've noted your platform in our list.
It's totally natural to focus on phantom as the first platform. Personally I use the Tarot 650sport which is quite a popular frame. It would be interesting to see if you could adapt your system to retractable legs.
@Fnoop Thank you very much. It is a pretty awesome solution. As you might expect, we have gotten a lot of interest in the product for other drones. We had to pick one to start with, but we certainly don't intend on stopping there! What make/model do you fly?
@Adam looks amazing!! Your solution is massively more stable at both takeoff and landing than the pool noodles/plumbing insulation that I was using. I don't have a phantom unfortunately, neither probably do most people on this forum as it's geared mostly towards APM users, but hopefully you'll make a generic version later on.
Best of luck with your kickstarter :)
We've just posted another video that shows some really cool landings that would have otherwise ruined the drone (or at least the camera) but had no damage at all.
@Fnoop Hopefully the video clearly shows how surface tension is not really an issue at all.
The campaign ends on Monday, so time is running short to get a WaterStrider for $159 from our production runs in June and July (June is already full). Check it out.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dronerafts/waterstrider-perfec...
Our team is really experienced in product development and production. In addition, we have a money-back guarantee for backers, so there is very little risk. If the campaign is not fully funded, you spend nothing. If it is fully funded, our experienced team will deliver. If you're not happy with the WaterStrider, return it within 30 days for a full refund.
Thanks and safe takeoffs and landings!
@AlpoHassinen Cool picture! Thanks for sharing.
@Fnoop Thanks for the good words. We are definitely interested in pursuing other models in order to accommodate as wide a market as possible. Your feedback is helpful as we downselect our next candidate. So far we are fully validated on the Phantom 3 and Phantom 4, but we've had quite a bit of interest in other models too.
We haven't found surface tension to be an issue at all. Some early prototypes had more or any issue, but we've carefully shaped the landing pods to minimize this affect. There is plenty of power to come off the water with plenty of reserve. When making the video we have to select the best overall clips from a video quality standpoint. We have many other videos that I think wouldn't look quite a 'sticky' on the water. I'll see if I can find one or two good ones.
On the P3 and P4, we don't have any issues with the drone or camera getting wet. We have some options for height adjustment, but the current configuration works really well and is very light, durable, and easy to handle.
@acorn We were concerned about waterproofing as well. With that said, though, we've never managed under normal conditions to get any water on the camera while operating with the WaterStrider. During testing we did fast forward motion landing on water and managed to get some spray on the camera, but these were not typical landings at all as the drone was probably going 15 mph forward at the point of touchdown on water.
Great! I've used 'pool noodles' and plumbing insulation to land and take off on water for a while now, but as you say it's not reliable and prone to tipover. Having tested it extensively, I only use it as an emergency backup. The problem is getting the floats wide enough out to be stable - I found they have to be quite a bit wider than the UAV, more so the higher the center of gravity is. This looks like a great solution, hope you can make it generic to fit all quads (I use the tarot 650sport which is very popular frame).
One thing I found is that it looks like the surface tension of water tends to 'stick' to the floats, you can see in your video in the first water takeoff the water sticks to the floats. Have you thought about treating the underneath of your floats with a hydrophobic coating to help this?
And if it could be adjustable height that would be great too, to keep gimbal/camera and slung batteries as far as possible away from the water.
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