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Apas 3.0 vs. Skydio: Tracking and OA Comparisons

The main advantage the Skydio has over any other drone out at the moment is the required hardware thats packed inside will (hopefully) lead it to become a truly great tracking drone.

No other drone (to my knowledge) has the internal processing power and grunt of the Skydio, so it's just a case of the software being sorted out. There is of course no point having the best hardware without the software to match, and Skydio are not there......yet. Some bits of the DJI tracking seem better and I'm quite impressed - but its most likely close to hitting it's limit due to the what's inside of it.

There are lots of tracking and OA points the Skydio needs to improve upon.....I have my fingers crossed it can.
 
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The main advantage the Skydio has over any other drone out at the moment is the required hardware thats packed inside will (hopefully) lead it to become a truly great tracking drone.

No other drone (to my knowledge) has the internal processing power and grunt of the Skydio, so it's just a case of the software being sorted out. There is of course no point having the best hardware without the software to match, and Skydio are not there......yet. Some bits of the DJI tracking seem better and I'm quite impressed - but its most likely close to hitting it's limit due to the what's inside of it.

There are lots of tracking and OA points the Skydio needs to improve upon.....I have my fingers crossed it can.
Yeah, one more drag is that Skydio does not give us option to fly at night ( I do not expect any warranty coverage if I accept some waiver to do so) It's inconvenient to drag along 2 drones for long trips.
 
Yeah, one more drag is that Skydio does not give us option to fly at night ( I do not expect any warranty coverage if I accept some waiver to do so) It's inconvenient to drag along 2 drones for long trips.
Skydio proudly represents their autonomy throughout the vehicle in every implementation. Regardless of the mode, O.A. is always on. Skydio advertises and heavily supports it. Although I believe it would be a great feature for more experienced pilots, of course with an indicator that each flight (at night) voids the warranty and O.A. is unavailable, however, as autonomy truly defines who Skydio really is, I do not believe that this will be implemented. If Skydio does not allow flight without O.A. in daylight, I don’t think they’ll allow it at night. For many users, this would be a great addition. But any chance that their #1 feature isn’t available or active could lead to crashes that even if the user chooses to fly acknowledging the lack of O.A., would lower their reputation. Skydio always and will continue to be based upon autonomy and I believe that this is their biggest strength. I am completely blown away by their technology available to consumers today and I can’t wait for what the future holds.

Watch OriginaldoBo’s video starring guest CEO of Skydio, Adam Bry for more information on Skydio and this topic:
 
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Yeah, one more drag is that Skydio does not give us option to fly at night ( I do not expect any warranty coverage if I accept some waiver to do so) It's inconvenient to drag along 2 drones for long trips.

Yeah, there was me going on about the hardware, but (and please everyone step in if have the wrong idea about this) isn't the Skydio missing an ultrasonic sensor (positioned on the undercarriage of the drone) to help with nighttime flying. I mean, the OA cameras would be useless so you wouldn't have any protection from crashing it when attempting to land?

However, in theory, you 'could' fly the drone at night...but not having at least that sensor would put 100% of the control into the pilots hands. I have flown basic racing drones where the only sensor was an accelerometer and have crashed them loads of times. I wouldn't even think about it with a drone costing this much. If one of the caveats for excellent OA is not being able to fly at night, that's ok with me....I can use my Mavic Mini for that.

I think the fact the didn't include that sensor and the emphasis they have put on it being a superior OA drone says to me that I can't see them even giving us the option to fly at night. As had been mentioned, it's first and foremost a OA drone.....and for its OA to work you needs certain lumen level.

You never know though....Skydio may install a Tesla-like Ludicrous mode that shuts everything off so you can go raw! They take stupidly detailed logs and a snippet of what the drone sees so if they have that, why not let the user have the option void their warranty! ☺️
 
Yeah, there was me going on about the hardware, but (and please everyone step in if have the wrong idea about this) isn't the Skydio missing an ultrasonic sensor (positioned on the undercarriage of the drone) to help with nighttime flying. I mean, the OA cameras would be useless so you wouldn't have any protection from crashing it when attempting to land?

However, in theory, you 'could' fly the drone at night...but not having at least that sensor would put 100% of the control into the pilots hands. I have flown basic racing drones where the only sensor was an accelerometer and have crashed them loads of times. I wouldn't even think about it with a drone costing this much. If one of the caveats for excellent OA is not being able to fly at night, that's ok with me....I can use my Mavic Mini for that.

I think the fact the didn't include that sensor and the emphasis they have put on it being a superior OA drone says to me that I can't see them even giving us the option to fly at night. As had been mentioned, it's first and foremost a OA drone.....and for its OA to work you needs certain lumen level.

You never know though....Skydio may install a Tesla-like Ludicrous mode that shuts everything off so you can go raw! They take stupidly detailed logs and a snippet of what the drone sees so if they have that, why not let the user have the option void their warranty! ☺
You can actually trick it to fly at dusk, but it takes effort to do that :)


 
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Makes sense.....the check is some sort of lux level check the drone performs as part of its start up process.

The Skydio picks up some pretty good images with such low light - very impressed.
 
More evidence that from behind and at slow to moderate speeds, the Air 2 tracking/oa performance is better than the Skydio 2 over all. Would have been better to see the S2 fly the same routes of course, but based on other videos I've seen I doubt it would have followed as smoothly or kept the subject framed as well. I especially liked how several times when the A2 got farther away while dodging obstacles, it speeded up gradually to catch up rather than suddenly darting forward as the S2 so often does.

On the other hand I hear that with some firmware updates the S2 is now tracking more smoothly. Let's see some extended examples of that.
 
More evidence that from behind and at slow to moderate speeds, the Air 2 tracking/oa performance is better than the Skydio 2 over all. Would have been better to see the S2 fly the same routes of course, but based on other videos I've seen I doubt it would have followed as smoothly or kept the subject framed as well. I especially liked how several times when the A2 got farther away while dodging obstacles, it speeded up gradually to catch up rather than suddenly darting forward as the S2 so often does.

On the other hand I hear that with some firmware updates the S2 is now tracking more smoothly. Let's see some extended examples of that.
You are on quite the MA2 kick on the Mavic boards as well. You must be a happy new owner....
 
I think the S2's ability to better track from the front and in closer (than the Ma2) would have provided a more interesting video during this time of day (i.e. less disturbing shadows).

The S2's obstacle avoidance would also not have hiccupped as many times as the MA2 did in this filming sequence.

The MA2 also appears to lag too far behind the subject to nicely keep attention on the target.

Would still prefer the S2 .... just my humble unbiased opinion.
 

mavic air 2 , active track , looses even from behind .
between 5:00 and 5:20

translation:
start going to the left so he got into trouble... until he looses the subject...
 
I think the S2's ability to better track from the front and in closer (than the Ma2) would have provided a more interesting video during this time of day (i.e. less disturbing shadows).

The S2's obstacle avoidance would also not have hiccupped as many times as the MA2 did in this filming sequence.

The MA2 also appears to lag too far behind the subject to nicely keep attention on the target.

Would still prefer the S2 .... just my humble unbiased opinion.
Agreed on paragraph one.

Regarding lagging too far behind, well that's largely a matter of personal preference of course. I generally prefer that the tracking be from more of a distance, showing the surrounding environment. Also, a lot of the time the farther distance was deliberately set by this guy. There were other sections where he started it close and it stayed close. Yes, with a lot of obstacles the A2 can start to lag behind; it is not as good at oa as the s2. Still, you clearly have more control over distance and height of tracking (from behind) with the A2. It at least tries, and often succeeds, in staying at roughly the height and distance that you set at the start of the trace, while with the s2 you can move it around with the beacon, but it fairly quickly goes back to the height and distance it likes.

One thing I especially like about the a2 tracking, not seen here so much as in other videos, is the way that in a forest environment it usually chooses to go low to avoid obstacles, which is what makes sense in a place like that and also makes for a more dynamic, interesting video, at least in my eyes. While with the s2, you would think it would really shine in a place like that, but in practice it chooses the high route way too often and gets stuck in the canopy.

If the s2 substantially improves a), its willingness to stay at the height/distance you set, and b), its oa decisions in forests so it favors dodging down or to the side rather than up, and c), its smoothness and framing with lower speed tracking, I'd say it outperforms the A2 even from behind. But without that, the A2 wins from behind at up to moderate speeds, even in fairly obstacle-rich environments, and from far away in most cases. The S2 wins at high speed and from the side or in front.
 
Asked my wife (whose from the Netherlands) to confirm I got this MA2 score card (in Post 32) translation correct.

Pluses:
+ Improved 1/2" Camera
+ Ocusync
+ 4K with 60fps
+ Fine Controller

Minuses:
- Larger and Heavier
- No ads-b
- No sensor(s) on the side

In all fairness my wife isn't an rc pilot but she noted that although the overall evaluation was positive the reviewer expected more from the MA2 and was a little disappointed.
 

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Asked my wife (whose from the Netherlands) to confirm I got this MA2 score card (in Post 32) translation correct.

Pluses:
+ Improved 1/2" Camera
+ Ocusync
+ 4K with 60fps
+ Fine Controller

Minuses:
- Larger and Heavier
- No ads-b
- No sensor(s) on the side

In all fairness my wife isn't an rc pilot but she noted that although the overall evaluation was positive the reviewer expected more from the MA2 and was a little disappointed.
Good translation.

And for europe it will be uncertain in which category it will fall in the future. Makes his future uncertain .
 
Agreed on paragraph one.

Regarding lagging too far behind, well that's largely a matter of personal preference of course. I generally prefer that the tracking be from more of a distance, showing the surrounding environment. Also, a lot of the time the farther distance was deliberately set by this guy. There were other sections where he started it close and it stayed close. Yes, with a lot of obstacles the A2 can start to lag behind; it is not as good at oa as the s2. Still, you clearly have more control over distance and height of tracking (from behind) with the A2. It at least tries, and often succeeds, in staying at roughly the height and distance that you set at the start of the trace, while with the s2 you can move it around with the beacon, but it fairly quickly goes back to the height and distance it likes.

One thing I especially like about the a2 tracking, not seen here so much as in other videos, is the way that in a forest environment it usually chooses to go low to avoid obstacles, which is what makes sense in a place like that and also makes for a more dynamic, interesting video, at least in my eyes. While with the s2, you would think it would really shine in a place like that, but in practice it chooses the high route way too often and gets stuck in the canopy.

If the s2 substantially improves a), its willingness to stay at the height/distance you set, and b), its oa decisions in forests so it favors dodging down or to the side rather than up, and c), its smoothness and framing with lower speed tracking, I'd say it outperforms the A2 even from behind. But without that, the A2 wins from behind at up to moderate speeds, even in fairly obstacle-rich environments, and from far away in most cases. The S2 wins at high speed and from the side or in front.
All very fair comments but choosing either the high way out (as opposed to the low way out) really depends on how high one prefers to track the target during constantly changing OA conditions.

The lack of side-ward sensors on the MA2 takes away an escape option that the S2 can take advantage of.
 
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All very fair comments but choosing either the high way out (as opposed to the low way out) really depends on how high one prefers to track the target during constantly changing OA conditions.

The lack of side-ward sensors on the MA2 takes away an escape option that the S2 can take advantage of.
Very true re side sensors. I'd be terrified to fly the Air 2 at speed sideways!
 
Asked my wife (whose from the Netherlands) to confirm I got this MA2 score card (in Post 32) translation correct.

Pluses:
+ Improved 1/2" Camera
+ Ocusync
+ 4K with 60fps
+ Fine Controller

Minuses:
- Larger and Heavier
- No ads-b
- No sensor(s) on the side

In all fairness my wife isn't an rc pilot but she noted that although the overall evaluation was positive the reviewer expected more from the MA2 and was a little disappointed.
Correct me if I am wrong, doesn't the Mavic Air 2 have an ADS-B receiver?
 

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