Will “Follow-Me” Be the Feature That Launches Skye Orbit?

I had the opportunity to meet with David Sliwa, Skye Intelligence Technology’s Director of Sales and Marketing last week at InterDrone.  David walked me through the functionality of their Orbit drone scheduled to hit the shelves in Q4 of this year.

From our meeting, there’s a lot to like about the Orbit. Its number one selling feature is the precision of their “auto-follow” technology, which unlike other drones on the market uses a more precise GPS wrist-band rather than the cellphone. In addition to the enhanced location feature, the Orbit boasts a 28 minute flight time.  Skye Intelligence has built a seamless interface to social media sharing sites including Facebook’s LiveStream.   Retail price guidelines at this time are $899 to $1099.  DroneLife will be providing “Hands On” with the Orbit in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

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Here’s some specifications on functionality (from their InterDrone Press Release):

                                        Hands-free auto-follow

Skye Orbit possesses three intelligent tracking technologies – Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Synchronous GPS Image Tracking (SGIT), and automated optical pixel-tracking (Computer Vision) which makes it the world’s most precise auto-follow UAV.

‘Follow Me’ mode enables hands-free control via a lightweight, wearable device, which Orbit tracks at a user-selected distance. ‘Point Lock’ commands the Orbit to hover above a fixed point and track its subject while the Orbit remains stationary, and ‘Climbing’ follows the user as they climb or descend.

Sleek design

The futuristic-looking Orbit is lightweight with a glossy black elliptical shell for optimized aerodynamics. Its contoured fuselage features a vivid blue ring light on the top and underbelly for enhanced visual ground recognition.

The quality of construction is very high and is enhanced by carbon fiber wing struts, advanced composite materials, and a contoured landing gear that reduces drag and increases agility.

HD images and videos

A 16mp gimbaled lens housed in the nose shoots stunning stills, while a 1080p camera streams high-quality HD images from dizzying heights of 200-metres and at speeds of up to 33-mph.

Orbit has 28-minutes battery life thanks to its streamlined construction – one of the longest flight times for a drone in this category.

Specifications:

Resolution: 8M – 16M pixel (4608 x 3456)

iSO range: 100-1600

Flight height: 50m with Skye+ app, 200m with remote control

Flying speed: 22 mph with Skye+ app, 33 mph with remote control

Flight time: approximately 28 minutes

Video recording modes: 1080p 30/60 fps

A patented auto-follow system, a patented flight control system and a patented integrated tracking system.

Weight (including battery): 2.8 pounds

Exterior dimension: 15.7 X 18.5 X 4.7 inches

Hovering accuracy: vertical 1.6 feet, horizontal 1 foot

Speed: Horizontal 39.4 feet per second max. Vertical 16.4 feet per second max, Angular 180°/s max

Tilting angle: 25° max

Battery: 5100mAh lithium ION Battery