The Vision Guidance Filming Drone is a research project to study the possibility of an application of a general use of an autonomous flying quadcopter.
Sanghyun Hong, Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
Jaemin Cho, Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
Jaeyoung Lim, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University
Dongho Kang, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University
Currently the culture of sharing videos of outdoor activities are growing. The VisionGuidance Filming drone is a research project to study the possibility of an application of an autonomous guided quadcopter designed for the mass.
The vision guidance filming drone tracks and follows the protagonist in the video so that quadcopter may be able to film the protagonist. Currently people use poles or helmet cams to hold the camera and take selfies. The vision guidance filming drone automates the process by following the protagonist and film the selfie. (which is not exactly a selfie as it is the ‘drone’ itself filming the person not the person himself)
This can be for various applications such as outdoor filming such as skiing, surfing, driving or indoor filming.
The project was funded and displayed in ther Creative Design Fair held by Seoul National University, Capstone international Design Competition, Electrical Engineering Fair
The source code of the flight software and project overview is in 404 warehouse blog
The gaphic above demonstrates the flight status, which the flight status could be determined by glance. The number of mountains show the altitude, and the mountains flow in the direction of flight. the diagonal lines indicate the four corners of the marker which the drone is tracking.
Comments
This WSJ article suggests that a selfie taken by your drone could be called a dronie. :-) One of the better articles for newbies thinking about buying one of the smaller, popular products.
Ah, PCB yagi might be a very good idea! should try out :) thank you Julien never thought of the idea using a PCB yagi
PCB yagi antennas are very light and could do the trick
Julien, you made a good point. We should try out wave signals. As the performance of the vision was disappointing.
On the initial stage of the project, we wanted to reduce the additional payload as possible, as weight is important for flight time. As the drone was filming, using vision to avoid and track could make the hardware as simple as it can be with no additional payloads other than a camera.
Very interesting project!
Others are working on something similar there:
nextlevelaerialfilming.com
But you both try to process image with light embedded boards, you risk to loose your target by confusion or obstruction, why not to track wave signals (imo, like soloshot)?
Consolidated links to Information about this and other approaches to managing interaction between a drone and you (or another object of interest) may be found on 'Follow me: tethering a UAV'.