
Skydio: $1k Skydio 2 drone launch takes aim at DJI - mtb2718
https://www.skydio.com/
======
HALtheWise
I'm an autonomy engineer at Skydio, and while there are limits to what I can
reveal publicly, I'm happy to answer any questions people have.

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bluegene
I've never flown a drone before. How easy would it be for me to learn?

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HALtheWise
Take a look at the warranty. If the drone crashes, it's our fault not yours.
In that sense, flying Skydio 2 should require about the same minimum skill as
using a smartphone camera (i.e. none). We say a three year old can operate it,
but that's not a hard minimum ;)

That said, there is always a skill ladder to climb if you want jaw-dropping
professional footage, where understanding lighting, composition, editing, etc.
benefit the quality of what you can make. The drone is pretty good at
autonomously picking good shots, but there's also a lot of manual control
possible, especially with the controller.

~~~
HALtheWise
Edit: Also, don't forget about local regulations wherever you fly. You are
still legally the pilot, even if the drone's software can make that easier.

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theicfire
This is an astounding engineering achievement. I love how they were able to do
all this autonomy with fisheye lenses -- the only navigation cameras are
pointing up and down!

It's incredibly rare that a company is on the cutting edge of both software
and hardware. There are hardly any other companies in this category. I'd say:

\- SpaceX (the control software for landing is outstanding)

\- Apple (although their software isn't the best, i.e. Siri, or how late to
the game they were with night sight)

\- Not Tesla (hardware is incredible, auto pilot is struggling)

\- Not Amazon (Kindle is great, but not a remarkable engineering achievement)

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Justin_K
Looks really cool, but I'm skeptical of all the demo videos and whether or not
a person or software flew the drone. Would like to see some independent
reviews of their following capability.

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notus
I think even if it is not that great it still beats DJI from a price point and
technical specs perspective.

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probablyexists
It is always good for DJI to have some competition. They have been spending
too much time going after GoPro cameras instead of advancing their
quadcopters.

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1024core
I've been keeping a casual eye on drones for a few years, and find it
surprising that the flight time always stays between 20 and 30 minutes.
Despite all the advances in every other department, the flight time has not
changed. Why is that? I would have expected drones capable of flying for over
an hour by now.

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timerol
Energy density improvements in lithium batteries (the biggest factor in flight
time) have been fairly gradual. There are drones that can fly longer, but they
don't use batteries. There are a few drones that use the frame as a hydrogen
tank, and can fly for about 4 hours. ([https://edgy.app/hydrogen-powered-
drone-hycopter-flight-4-ho...](https://edgy.app/hydrogen-powered-drone-
hycopter-flight-4-hours))

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cultofmetatron
looks cool and with all the human rights abuses coming out of China, I'd
rather throw my money at a homegrown company. when do you think the final
version will be out?

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jiveturkey
eh? where do you think the parts for this come from?

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cultofmetatron
gotta start somewhere!

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GhettoMaestro
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I am very glad to see an American
drone company in response to DJI's dominance of the consumer market.

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sauwan
Is there any way to get the 3d geometry out to create 3d models of things like
buildings or rooms?

Looking for something similar to Matterport, but flyable.

~~~
HALtheWise
We have a partnership with and support for Dronedeploy, which provides tools
for many basic scanning uses. If you have an application that needs more
detailed integration with the autonomy in the Skydio system, get in touch.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOBkgqdT4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOBkgqdT4o)

~~~
agar
Somewhat related, any plans for integration with VR headsets?

This could either be first-person flying, or the generation of stereo-correct
video (using offset cameras) for later viewing.

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anfractuosity
"Utilizing 45 megapixels of visual sensing from six 200 degree color cameras,
Skydio 2 can see everything in every direction with unprecedented resolution
and clarity." \- Just to clarify, that means the Jetson TX2 can capture and
process data from all 6 cameras, simultaneously, at 4k each? At what framerate
is that too out of interest?

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HALtheWise
It's a little bit complicated to answer this, because (as with all
engineering) everything is tradeoffs. While I'm pretty sure the Tegra could in
theory collect and process all of that data, doing so would load the processor
and memory bandwidth enough that we couldn't run any the other algorithms we
need to fly safely. In practice, that means that the framerates we process
depend on exactly what the vehicle is trying to do and how it is moving.

~~~
myself248
In other words, you're unlikely to bump into something you're moving away
from, which is why humans don't have eyes on the back of our heads either.

This has eyes mounted everywhere, but I presume it dedicates its visual cortex
(to stretch the analogy a bit) to the ones facing in the directions that
matter.

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jiveturkey
nice. i pre-ordered one so that it can follow me around while i do my hero
activities. hopefully it plays a soundtrack like in the video so i can be
properly represented. i never thought i'd want one of these but now i do.
great job. i like when a marketing dept is as good as the engineering dept (or
vice versa if you come from other POV).

i was going to give a smack down about how there is no information about legal
and safety issues around drones, and while it isn't on the front page it was
very, very easy to find.

[https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360000586653-Sk...](https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360000586653-Skydio-Flight-Safety)

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tony2016
The R1 (first gen) propellers were protected by a plastic shield around them.
Here they are exposed. What happens if the drone hits a tree or some branches?
Won't the propellers easily break?

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madmax96
I wonder what autopilot this uses? One of the open source ones or a custom
implementation?

~~~
HALtheWise
A lot of our systems are built on open source software (the drone runs Linux),
but the core algorithms for flying the drone are custom and very state of the
art. If you want to know more, we're always hiring.

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busterarm
Super cool. Preordered and looks well-worth it IMO.

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tekknolagi
This seems like an ad. Title reads like one and link just points to homepage.
This is the poster's only submission.

cc dang

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mtb2718
Full disclosure: this is a friend's startup. Not intended to be an advert.
We've worked together on computer vision problems in the past, and there is
some serious tech under the hood here. Happy to change the title if you have a
better suggestion.

~~~
yumraj
You may want to add a "Show HN:" to the title

