FLYPRO’s XEagle is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that features both auto follow and obstacle avoidance functions.
Users don’t need much (if any) experience with drones to use the XEagle. The drone works with smart watch technology called XWatch, which is designed specifically for the aircraft and transmits navigation and flight commands.
XWatch offers two ways to command the drone to follow you. The first is a high-precision pressure sensor that enables the user to command the aircraft to follow them by tapping once on the screen.
The second option is to verbally tell XEagle to follow you. The voice control feature allows simple commands like “FLYPRO, take off” or “FLYPRO, follow me” to command the drone to take off, land, follow, or adjust the height during flight.
XEagle uses an infrared obstacle avoidance system and built-in photoelectric sensors along with four added safety features to lower the risk of crashing while in operation. These additional safety features allow XEagle’s obstacle avoidance and crash prevention solution software to calculate in real-time what the safest next move should be and change its flight path.
FLYPRO XEagle. (Image courtesy of FLYPRO.)
The second is double compass intelligence protection. When the aircraft is affected by electromagnetic interference or if there are any issues between the inner and outer compasses’ data, it will land as quickly and safely as possible.
The third added protection feature is a low-voltage protection solution. Crashing to the ground mid-flight due to a loss of power could inflict damage to the aircraft. To prevent crashes from power loss, if the drone detects that it is running low on power, it will alert the user by vibrating the XWatch and then land safely nearby.
The last feature is the out-of-control protection that automatically returns the drone to its home base if it loses the signal to the XWatch.
Obstacle detection proves most effective when the obstruction is between 0.1 to 15 m away from the drone with a relative velocity of 12 m/s.
Similar to a flight data recorder, the black box attached to the aircraft records data with important limits regarding voltage, GPS, flight altitude and the vibration coefficient for each flight. Using this data, the UAV can provide the user with a flight issue analysis.
XEagle can also take high definition pictures and video while in flight. Right now, this technology is used mainly for outdoor sports like snowboarding, mountain biking or skateboarding. Is the next step to use these drones in fields like search and rescue, media, military or surveillance? Comment below.
To learn more about FLYPRO and XEagle, check out their website.