Here you can learn about how to use the Dock Automation product. It is very similar to why you already love planning flights with DroneDeploy and the same flight plans are supported. Please see the Planning Missions help section if you are new to flying with DroneDeploy.
Select a flight plan
Select an existing flight plan or create a new flight plan with any of DroneDeploy’s standard flight plan types. Once you are happy with the flight plan, then click the “Select a Drone” dropdown on the bottom left of the screen. Select the dock you want to fly the flight plan with.
Once selected, you will get a notification that the drone is connected. Then you should see the dronedeploy icon on your map at the location of the dock you have selected. Your map plan duration, images and number of batteries will be updated based on the connected dock. Confirm that is correct and that it is the correct dock.
Preflight Checklist
Once happy with the flight plan and the selected dock, you can click the start preflight checklist in the bottom right of the screen. If you have an Enterprise account you will first see a custom manual checklist to your organization. Go through this checklist.
Once the manual checklist has passed or you are not on an Enterprise account with DroneDeploy it will go straight to the automated checklist which will confirm permissions and the dock and drone are ready to fly.
We’ve also added some useful features to the Dock Automation Pre-flight Checklist:
Weather Check: Get real-time weather information from the dock to confirm conditions are favorable for flight.
Dock Camera Check: Ensure the dock is fully functional and clear of people before takeoff.
Drone Condition Verification: Open the dock to verify the drone’s condition before it takes off.
Start Flight
Following this you can click “Start Flight” on the bottom right of the screen. This will initialize the drone and send the mission down to the dock.
The video stream from the drone will start once the dock has opened and the drone has turned on. Typically the drone is off inside the dock once media transfer has been completed. You will see live telemetry from the drone (altitude, distance from the dock, speed and gimbal angle). As per non docked drone flights you will also see the drone icon follow your flight plan as it progresses. You can full screen the drone payload camera at any time.
While in flight you have the ability to pause the mission (top right) which will hover the drone in place and also to return to home (top left) at any stage. The return to home button will fly up to the preset height and then return directly to the dock and land.
Automatic upload
Once the drone lands in the dock, data will be automatically uploaded and processed into the same DroneDeploy project you flew from. Photos and Video Plans will turn up within minutes and you will be notified once Mapping and Pano plans have finished processing.
Now you can visualize and analyze your captured data in DroneDeploy. Check out the Analysis help section to find out more.