Tracking other persons / home-point questions

[ralf-parrotpilots]

Becaus of lack of time and other interests, I only seldom fly my Anafi and til now only did this in maual mode.
But having read so much about the Air2's very good tracking functionality, i would like to know about Anafi's tracking abilites. I would like to film some Kiters and Windsurfers this year and so this is of interest.
Maybe somebody can chime in and help me to clarify this:
1. Is Anafi able to track someone else (not myself) and have the cam focused on the person? As I have read, the camerman mode allows to have somebody else in focus but you have to manually fly the drone to follow him. Is there a 'flollow and film him''-modus like in the Air2?
2. How and where is the home-point set in tracking mode?
In manual mode - as I understand - the homepoint is set to the GPS position where Anafi was startet, am I right?
But in Follow ME modus homepoint must be set to where the Controller is, otherwise this would not make sense, or? Activating follow me, then running 2km with the controller in my hand and in case of RTH Anafi would return to the far (2km) away starting point - would be not so good...
If there is a 'tracking somebody else'-modus (see question 1) where is homepoint set then? F.e. I'm on a boat wanting to film a surfer, 'follow-surfer' is started. Anafi AND me on the boat are following the surfer. Suddenly connection to Anafi is lost. Where is my homepoint - miles away or at the place where the boat (and I'm and the controller) are?

in all the the videos, I've seen so far, about Anafi's tracking, I never have seen anyone tracking a person who obviously does not have the controller in hand...

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Becaus of lack of time and other interests, I only seldom fly my Anafi and til now only did this in maual mode.
But having read so much about the Air2's very good tracking functionality, i would like to know about Anafi's tracking abilites. I would like to film some Kiters and Windsurfers this year and so this is of interest.
Maybe somebody can chime in and help me to clarify this:
1. Is Anafi able to track someone else (not myself) and have the cam focused on the person? As I have read, the camerman mode allows to have somebody else in focus but you have to manually fly the drone to follow him. Is there a 'flollow and film him''-modus like in the Air2?
2. How and where is the home-point set in tracking mode?
In manual mode - as I understand - the homepoint is set to the GPS position where Anafi was startet, am I right?
But in Follow ME modus homepoint must be set to where the Controller is, otherwise this would not make sense, or? Activating follow me, then running 2km with the controller in my hand and in case of RTH Anafi would return to the far (2km) away starting point - would be not so good...
If there is a 'tracking somebody else'-modus (see question 1) where is homepoint set then? F.e. I'm on a boat wanting to film a surfer, 'follow-surfer' is started. Anafi AND me on the boat are following the surfer. Suddenly connection to Anafi is lost. Where is my homepoint - miles away or at the place where the boat (and I'm and the controller) are?

in all the the videos, I've seen so far, about Anafi's tracking, I never have seen anyone tracking a person who obviously does not have the controller in hand...

You haven't seen a video because Anafi doesn't know that, unfortunately.
Follow Me a (you can see from the mode name) follows me (the pilot).
This mode works with two-part control:
1. Optical tracking
2. GPS based tracking
In case you can't visually follow (a landmark obscures me) you won't lose the target either because the phone's GPS signal is sent by the remote control to the drone for tracking.
RTH in this case is the position of the remote control.
Unfortunately, you can't find something like the DJI active track function here.
The only mode you mentioned is cameraman mode. The camera will then follow the target you framed and you can guide the drone by hand.
It works quite well with a little practice. Of course, this is not suitable for landmarks because there are no sensors to avoid the obstacle. Maybe that's why there is no tracking mode. On the other hand, it keeps the camera on target, so you can pay more attention to the flight and obstacles ...
RTH is the take-off point in this mode.

 

[ralf-parrotpilots]

TX for your detailed explanations!
Like you said - maybe the lack of sensors is really the reason why there is no active tracking. I once landed in a tree while filming a surfer from land. I had completey zoomed in on the surfer and was flying backwards in front of him - not knowing that I already was flying over ground with high trees instead above water because of the zoom factor... Luckily with no damage to the drone...
But even cameraman mode then won't be of any use with homepoint being the take-off point and not the controller and having the controller on a moving boat following a surfer.....
Ok, so maybe it's time to order an Air 2 - but better wait til someone compares its noise to an Anafi

 

[DutchMountains]

Yeah, can't stand the DJI noise!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

You can use Camera man but you would have to control the sticks to track the subject. The Anafi will keep the camera on the subject.

 

[ralf-parrotpilots]

Not a good idea with the homepoint then being the take-off point....

 

[ralf-parrotpilots]

Yeah, can't stand the DJI noise!

The Air2 should be less noisy than the other ones, as I have heard...

 

[Chasbro]

It is possible to use follow me to track something else by using a separate gps device (like a garmin glo) along with an ios tablet. Just have the target wear the gps Only problem is range is limited to bluetooth, so the tablet and the target can't get very far apart.

 

[ralf-parrotpilots]

That idea never occured to me and I won't be trying that with somebody windurfing....

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

For the task of following surfers, I would definitely recommend Mavic air 2. It is quieter than previous DJI machines and its tracking method is very advanced. Detecting and avoiding the obstacle is the best thing the DJI has done. Ideal follower drone. There is only one better than this at this price: the Skydio 2.

 

[Frontier]

For the task of following surfers, I would definitely recommend Mavic air 2. It is quieter than previous DJI machines and its tracking method is very advanced. Detecting and avoiding the obstacle is the best thing the DJI has done. Ideal follower drone. There is only one better than this at this price: the Skydio 2.

There are already videos on YT with the Air 2 crashing into obstacles like road signs while tracking a subject (a person on a bicycle).
Do not forget that due to the lack of side and up sensors, the Air 2 follows the subject at an angle from behind, so that it can try to compensate for the missing side sensors.
In more complex environments, it fails completely as shown on the video below.

Regarding subject following, NOTHING beats the Skydio 2 and if someone can buy it, I'd highly recommend this instead of any dji drone regarding subject tracking and autonomous flying.
If you also live in Europe, the Air 2 has no ADB-S (which it should as a 2020 model according to EASA specifications) and therefor cannot pass CE certification to be legally allowed to fly within 150m of persons (including the operator) and will adhere to "legacy drone" status of EASA specs. The same applies to dji Mavic 2 also that will adhere to the "legacy drone" status of EASA specs.

Regarding subject tracking:

Regarding the problems of Air 2 on CE/EASA (the video is in German but you can enable subtitles).

 

[ralf-parrotpilots]

I don't think that I will have a problem with Air2's lack of side or up sensors out there on the water..
The problem with the Skydio2 is its size for transport and - more important - there is no information whether it will be available in EU at all. The information I got is, that they will be not able to have the Skydio certified for the EU laws and therefore it is not planned to sell it in the EU.
I'm not so well informed about the new EU laws but I think you are not quite right regarding Air2. ADB-S at the moment is not needed for a drone. And because of all that Corona stuff, the passing of the new EU-drone law is postponed to 1.01.2021. You then also have a so-called transition period til 1.07.2022. Only after that date the Air2 will not be able to be legllay flown closer as 150m to people, real estate etc. because of its lack of certification as C1 class drone.

 

[Frontier]

I am just reporting what information I have regarding ADB-S and the proposed EASA legislation.
It just does not make sense what dji did with the Air 2 providing two versions, one US/Chinese (which has ADS-B) and one for Europe (without ADS-B), knowing that ADS-B will be standard in EU.

I have a Yuneec Typhoon H+ that will get ADS-B receiver as an add-on (something that dji Mavic drones cannot do because of their tight integration), it would be bad - for me - to get a drone now in 2020 knowing that in about two years will be "legacy" (even if it is still flying fine and is properly maintained). In any case, I will wait for dji to clear their mess out regarding their EU drones before thinking of buying something like the Air 2 but that is just my opinion (I also have a Mavic Air, a Parrot Anafi, a Mavic 2 Zoom, a Phantom 4 Pro all of these will be "legacy" in about two years); I do not want another "legacy-wannabe" in my fleet