This will probably not come as a surprise to you dear sUAS News reader, you are here so are discerning!
I think Lily will firmly go down in history as over promising and under delivering. The last time I wrote about it I asked if they could pop one along to Patrick in Sacramento, our office is near the river so we could try out the waterproof bit. So far no joy on that one.
Their 23rd May 2016 blog update rang big alarm bells. In it they talk about sonar integration.
We’ve also got sonar sensor testing in heavy rotation this week, making serious strides on the firmware integration. The sonar sensor is one of many housed within the Lily Camera, each responsible for a very specific task in flight. The sonar sensor’s job is to detect your Lily Camera’s distance from the ground, always maintaining a three meter minimum while in flight. As this sensor must be able to perform in a vast variety of environments, we’ve been putting it to the test across all types of terrain.
First off, the sonar is in the camera area, I guess that’s them either side of it in the image above. Explains why I am not seeing anything on the bottom where I would expect them and that they are waterproof in there.
But the most important point, they are just testing the sonar! This is one of the very hard bits!
Just three weeks ago I wondered if they would be able to compete with a slew of follow me drones coming out of China.
