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Potentially dangerous issue with active track
4045 17 2017-4-8
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fans97d0aa1d
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I've been playing around with active track a bit and noticed a couple of dangerous situations that occur when active track loses sight of the tagged person.

What seems to happen is that if it loses track of who is tagged the drone can move very quickly in a random direction (sometimes towards the subject), and if the drone is low enough to the ground this could potentially be quite dangerous.

A suggestion for DJI would be that IF the drone loses sight of the active track target it should just hover in place and not attempt to search. To search in this way as it seems to be doing is just dangerous. I can post an example video if that'll help!
2017-4-8
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jreynolds5
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if it is that low the obstacle avoidance will keep it from hitting someone
2017-4-8
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Jason Lane
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Singapore
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jreynolds5 Posted at 2017-4-8 07:35
if it is that low the obstacle avoidance will keep it from hitting someone

You mean like this?

2017-4-8
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thehippoz
Captain
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United States
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Starting follow on the ground can be fun if you have a bunch of things to crash into. It will go right to them like a magnet it seems.

This is the best one seen on active tracking and follow http://bit.ly/2nOzg5E

You have to learn all the querks is all.
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NoSale
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I found when first trying out gesture mode (still a form of Active Track) that I would put the controller on the ground at my feet so I could use both hands to gesture.  Then when I bent over to pick up the controller, the drone tracked closer to me (keeping its set distance).  The first time, not understanding what was happening, it was a little unnerving.  I thought the drone got a mind of its own and wanted to fly over me and beyond.  Then I began to understand its behavior.

On another occasion, using the same gesture mode, I may have put it a little too close to myself as the subject.  I was in an open area, had put the controller at my feet (after identifying myself as the subject), stood to give the gesture, then bent down to pick up the controller.  The Mavic flew over me and beyond a short distance.  This is when I determined it is potential to have a dangerous and painful outcome.

Keep in mind, the Mavic did not lose its subject (me), but it seems you should allow a little buffer in distance if you should need to bend down to a lower point for anything.  I most cases, you would set the controller out of the picture, have the Mavic follow you to where you want to perform the gesture, then return to retrieve the controller that is located somewhere safe to retrieve without throwing the Mavic in an unsafe position.

In my instance, I didn't feel comfortable allowing the Mavic to track me without having the RC within an easy reach.  Ultimately, I think it is best to keep the RC in hand while tracking a different subject.  Sometimes, that isn't always ideal, but learning that there are limits to Active Tracking is worth keeping in mind......
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fans97d0aa1d
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Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-8 07:54
You mean like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udhkjq0K-TE

Jason - yes that's exactly the sort of thing it does.

Object avoidance is not a good enough solution. The mavic simply shouldn't rush in a random direction when it loses track. It has the real potential to harm someone.

This is a great little machine with some awesome features but imho DJI needs to tweak this a bit for safety - they risk the possibility of some serious accidents otherwise and corresponding potential liability suits.
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fans97d0aa1d
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NoSale Posted at 2017-4-8 08:48
I found when first trying out gesture mode (still a form of Active Track) that I would put the controller on the ground at my feet so I could use both hands to gesture.  Then when I bent over to pick up the controller, the drone tracked closer to me (keeping its set distance).  The first time, not understanding what was happening, it was a little unnerving.  I thought the drone got a mind of its own and wanted to fly over me and beyond.  Then I began to understand its behavior.

On another occasion, using the same gesture mode, I may have put it a little too close to myself as the subject.  I was in an open area, had put the controller at my feet (after identifying myself as the subject), stood to give the gesture, then bent down to pick up the controller.  The Mavic flew over me and beyond a short distance.  This is when I determined it is potential to have a dangerous and painful outcome.

Nosale - there was no bending down to pick anything up. It was that the subject exited off the screen to the left. The mavic then buzzed the second (untracked) person in the shot in an aggressive and fast manner. Not good at all!
2017-4-8
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RealFixxxer
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Yes, I agree that this regime has not been finalized. All my problems with the Mavic (broken propellers and scratches) arose after trying to use ActiveTrack.
Mavic at a good speed flies in an arbitrary direction when he loses the target.

If I see Mavik again, I will not use ActiveTrack, only manually. Although it was ActiveTrack that caused the purchase of the Maviс.
2017-4-9
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SkunkWerxs
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Jason ,
This is pretty interesting --- I've seen active track working properly already --- I only used it once
what I noticed was if the target moves too fast the Mavic will climb in altitude to keep the target
in center frame and when the target's motion slows down or stop's the Mavic descends  but keeps
a set distance that was set in the Controller to keep the target center frame .
When I tried active track there was no snow on the ground by me ---- I noticed in these two vid's
that are posted showing the Mavic Bugging out there is snow and poor lighting , do you think this
my have been a Factor?
Fly Safe --- Fly Free
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Jason Lane
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SkunkWerxs Posted at 2017-4-9 03:52
Jason ,
This is pretty interesting --- I've seen active track working properly already --- I only used it once
what I noticed was if the target moves too fast the Mavic will climb in altitude to keep the target

I think there's a chance that the snowy conditions can make things harder for Active Track to work well. But the real problem is the way the Mavic can quite quickly move in a different direction when it loses track of its subject. I saw another video a few weeks ago where a guy had his Mavic following him on a dirt bike, and the Mavic suddenly flew off in the wrong direction. In that case, it seemed to me like the Mavic lost the biker as he passed over a darker patch of dirt.
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SkunkWerxs
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Jason Lane Posted at 2017-4-9 04:10
I think there's a chance that the snowy conditions can make things harder for Active Track to work well. But the real problem is the way the Mavic can quite quickly move in a different direction when it loses track of its subject. I saw another video a few weeks ago where a guy had his Mavic following him on a dirt bike, and the Mavic suddenly flew off in the wrong direction. In that case, it seemed to me like the Mavic lost the biker as he passed over a darker patch of dirt.

Jason,

This is interesting --- maybe, possibly the Mavic gets confused and losses it target ( Glitch )
while it go's over too Dark or too Bright of a background ????
Then when it try's to pickup the target again it's targeting something to the far Left or Right
then speeding over to it to catch up -- DJI did increase the speed of tracking to 15m/s in the
last FW update .

  
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4wesomeAdam
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It was like watching this video.

Instead of a hellfire, it was a Mavic missile.

Almost got a hair cut.
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SkunkWerxs
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4wesomeAdam Posted at 2017-4-9 04:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=delzYhS_Y5c

It was like watching this video.

Holy hair cut's batman

   loolllll
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Danny-B-
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Both of the videos are very poor lighting, the first video even shows obstacle avoidance off, i'd assume due to low light, but thats the same reason that active track will perform poorly.
It shoots off fast as it thinks its following a rapidly moving target, so it's kinda doing as it should ... nothings fool proof, all you can really do is use functions like activetrack carefully and within its limits.
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rydfree41
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jreynolds5 Posted at 2017-4-8 07:35
if it is that low the obstacle avoidance will keep it from hitting someone

OA doesn't pick up all things .  OA , RTH , Low battery landing Etc are not save all features to be relied on in place of safe flying habits and pilot skill . They may save your arse more than once but depending on automated tech is a recipe for disaster .
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SkunkWerxs
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rydfree41 Posted at 2017-4-9 05:19
OA doesn't pick up all things .  OA , RTH , Low battery landing Etc are not save all features to be relied on in place of safe flying habits and pilot skill . They may save your arse more than once but depending on automated tech is a recipe for disaster .

rydfree,

Well said !!!!!!! best advice to give to all

Fly Safe -- Fly Free
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NoSale
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fans97d0aa1d Posted at 2017-4-8 23:05
Nosale - there was no bending down to pick anything up. It was that the subject exited off the screen to the left. The mavic then buzzed the second (untracked) person in the shot in an aggressive and fast manner. Not good at all!

I understand.  I was just adding a similar experience where using Active Track was potentially dangerous.  

The video example is an oddity for sure.  Active Track does some fun things, but I think it can't be fully trusted at all times.  Having someone monitor the controls, just in case, would seem to be more prudent, but also kind of defeats the purpose.......
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fans97d0aa1d
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Danny-B- Posted at 2017-4-9 05:11
Both of the videos are very poor lighting, the first video even shows obstacle avoidance off, i'd assume due to low light, but thats the same reason that active track will perform poorly.
It shoots off fast as it thinks its following a rapidly moving target, so it's kinda doing as it should ... nothings fool proof, all you can really do is use functions like activetrack carefully and within its limits.

It's happened to me in good lighting, both on a beach and on a grass field. What happened both times is that the subject sharply turned left, meaning they moved out of the field of view of the Mavic. The drone then moved erratically in an arbitrary direction.

Ultimately I feel that active track is not safe to use in its present incarnation. They need to fix it.
2017-4-9
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