UAS Sensor Placement

            There are many things that one must take into consideration when purchasing an unmanned aerial system.  Of course, one must first decide what purpose the UAS will serve.  This will then lead to a decision on what sensors and capabilities the UAS will need to have.  One thing that a user must determine is where sensors must be places to best fulfill their purpose on the UAS.  While UASs designed for professional video and image capture and first-person view racing have very similar looks, they are designed to be quite different.  The remainder of this discussion will focus on the design criteria and selection of a commercially available UAS for both purposes.

There are many things that must be considered when selecting an unmanned aerial system (UAS) for aerial video and photography.  One of the most important factors to consider is the placement of the primary camera and the capabilities of the primary camera.  There are many purpose built unmanned aerial systems for video and image capture.  One of these systems, the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 (Figure 1), is arguably one of the best ones on the market.  Equipped with a one-inch, 20-megapixel camera which can capture 4K video at 60 frames-per-second and still imagery at up to 14 frames-per-second.  The Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 can stream live video back to the control during flight using DJIs OcuSync HD transmission system.  Utilizing a dual frequency transmission system, the OcuSync streaming video transmission can provide crystal clear video at ranges of up to seven kilometers.  Finally, the transmission system can constantly assess the environment it is operating in and adjust to help maintain the optimum signal and minimal interference (Phantom 4 pro v2, n.d.).

Figure 1: DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 UAS for aerial video and imagery capture (Phantom 4 pro v2, n.d.)

When it comes to the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0, there are two main reasons that I selected it for use in video and still photography.  First, is the camera placement.  Mounted underneath the main body of the UAS it is free from interference by the propellers and the body of the vehicle.  The only obstacle that the camera must worry about is the landing gear for the vehicle.  Luckily, the highly capable Flight Autonomy system that DJI has created is capable of compensating for that.  This is exactly why the Flight Autonomy system is the second reason that I picked the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0.  This Flight Autonomy software features full, five-directions obstacle avoidance to help keep operators minds at ease and focused on getting the perfect shot.  Finally, the Flight Autonomy features a hold of software for tracking and safety to help operators efficiently operate the UAS (Phantom 4 Pro, n.d.).

A racing drone has many different parts that must be considered.  Eachine, makes a highly capable first-person-view racing drone called the Wizard X220 (Figure 2).  This racing UAS can achieve speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and is highly maneuverable due to the way they have the motors mounted and its light weight of only 364-grams (without a battery).  It can fly for up to twelve minutes utilizing either a 4S or 3S battery and has directional indicator lights for easy directional control.  It is controlled via a 5.8 GHz handheld transmitter which can also receive a live video stream back from the UAS for control purposes.  Many racers also utilize first-person-view goggles for flying the race, which this UAS is easily setup for.  The main reason for choosing this UAS for racing is the way its front mounted camera is setup.  Many racing UAS have the camera setup to only look directly forward.  However, the Wizard X220 has a front mounted camera that can tilt up and down.  This gives the operator maximum forward view, even when the UAs is flying in the forward tilted attitude for maximum forward speed (Eachine, n.d.).  This extra viewing angle could potentially help the operator to edge out the competition when using the Wizard X220.

Figure 2: Wizard X220 First Person View Racing UAS (Eachine, n.d.)

References:

Eachine Wizard X220 FPV Racing Drone. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2018, from https://www.eachine.com/Eachine-Wizard-X220-FPV-Racing-Drone-Blheli_S-F3-6DOF-2205-2300KV-Motors-5_8G-48CH-200MW-VTX-700TVL-Camera-ARF-Version-p-569.html

Phantom 4 Pro - Professional aerial filmmaking made easy. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2018, from https://www.dji.com/phantom-4-pro

Phantom 4 pro v2 | quadcopter for aerial photography. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2018, from https://www.dji.com/phantom-4-pro-v2?site=brandsite&from=homepage