Sergei Lupashin has a solution for the fundamental problems with UAV photography. First, he says, the issue of piloting needs to be solved. Next is regulation, or maybe the lack of regulation. In his TED Talk A flying camera… on a leash Lupashin discusses his answers to these problems and demonstrates his Fotokite drone built for aerial photography.
The Fotokite is a quadcopter on a leash. During the demonstration Sergei points the copter in the direction he wants it to go, turns on the motors, and pushes it on its way. The leash length can be adjusted for higher or closer shots. The leash also acts as the control – the operator moves where he wants the drone to move.
http://www.fotokite.com/#fotokite
A quick pullback motion pulls the leash back into the housing, and holding the body of the UAV and twisting your wrist causes the mechanism to turn off. Framing the picture is done by maninpulating the hand held monitor. The controls demonstrated in this talk are very intuitive and simple.
Lupashin says that just seeing the physical tether between the operator and the drone creates a greater sense of safety. The visual that the pilot is in control of the drone and is responsible for the safety and actions of the drone eases the mind of casual observers.
Fotokite says on their website that the goal is a safe, intelligent flying camera that anyone can deploy in under a minute. The current FAA regulations explicitly exclude tethered systems from the definition of UAS, so the company is expecting to fall under conventional kite regulations.
This is an innovative way to alleviate most concerns about drones while bringing a useful product to market. Several copters are being marketed to us for Christmas 2014 but many do not have blade guards and none that I’ve seen include a tether. I would ask for more technical details on the Fotokite website, but the ideas here are great and the execution is very slick.