See information below about Dock Drone Flight and Uploading!
Video Summary:
In this video you'll see how to plan and operate a docked drone flight from the DroneDeploy platform, specifically a DJI Dock 2.
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, 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 it 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 for 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 that 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 will click and hold the “Start Flight” button on the bottom right of the screen for 3 seconds. 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.
We also offer an Emergency Descend button, which will lower the drone to 66ft above the dock height and hover. The pilot can assess their location and resume the mission or return to the home point.
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.