Ten Best Follow Me Drones And Follow Me Technology Reviewed

With Follow Me mode drone technology, the UAV will automatically follow your movements giving you tremendous opportunity to film some very unique aerial shots. It’s hands free flying and filming.

At present there are 2 types of Follow Me mode technology.  There is the GSC with Follow Me GPS transmitter technology and the latest using recognition software such as DJI ActiveTrack.

Follow me drone technology came on the scene big time last year and the follow me innovation has continued since. Many drones with follow me GPS mode also have many other intelligent flight systems giving you even more options for filming.

Having a drone with Follow Me flight mode has many benefits including capturing great moving selfies with your loved ones and capturing your adventures in very scenic locations. We are also seeing athletes, cyclists and mountaineers using follow me GPS drones to film their activities and help improve their technique.  Most of all flying using the Follow Me mode is great fun.

This article presents a quick guide to follow me drone technology along with the best follow me drones on the market presently.

Follow Me GPS Drone Technology

Follow Me is an intelligent fight mode which turns your drone into a hands-free aerial camera crew.  It puts you in the middle of your own adventure.  We are now seeing 2 types of Follow Me technology in use.

GPS Transmitter/ GSC 

Many follow me mode drones use a GPS enabled device such as a mobile phone, tablet or a Ground Station Controller (GSC) along with a transmitter (wearable transmitter  or mobile phone).   The drone is programmed to follow the transmitter and to keep the subject in the picture at all times.

Follow me technology creates a virtual tether between the drone and a GPS-equipped mobile device which allows the drone to track you or another subject in motion. Most Follow me UAVs, can also remain stationary and track the subject by rotating, or it can move along with the subject.

Follow Me Recognition Technology

The latest Phantom 4 drone from DJI uses sensor and recognition technology along with software algorithms to recognize a person or object.  This ActiveTrack Follow Me technology allows the UAV to track a moving subject without a separate GPS tracker.

This software called ActiveTrack is built into the DJI Pilot App on the Phantom 4. You choose the object on screen, then fly around it at least once so that the UAV learns to recognize you.  The Phantom 4 is the only drone at present using this recognition software.

Follow Me Software

The software to program Follow Me is generally built into the overall drone application. DJI have their GO App. 3DR drones use their SOLO App and the diy Arducopter diy drone uses Mission Planner software.

Other manufacturers build the follow me mode software into the Ground Station Controller (GSC) such as Walkera. With a couple of clicks you program what you want to follow or track.

The software is pretty sophisticated using algorithms  and calculations to track and keep the object in view at all times. Most Follow Me applications allow you to program the gimbal and camera with pre-set flight distances, height and angles giving your video very unique cinematic perspectives.

Follow Me Distance

Each UAV manufacturer use different ranges with their follow me technology.  It is probably best to keep the distance short in the beginning as you get to know your drone.  If too much distance is allowed between the GSC and the transmitter, the two could lose their connection.

With DJI, drones such as the Phantom 4, the GPS is very strong at a height of 30 meters (98.4 feet) and a distance of 20 meters (66.5 feet).  DJI drones can follow you at a much further distance than this.

The 3DR SOLO drone allows for a distance between the Ground Station Controller and the mobile device of up to 150 meters (492 feet).  My advice is to keep the distance short in the beginning.

Flight Safety

It is good to remember that the vast majority of Follow Me mode drones do not have object avoidance.  Follow Me mode is great in wide open spaces or where there is enough space so that their is no break in the GPS signal.

Best practice is to plan your your route and be mindful or any obstacles that your drone could potentially crash into. You can also program your drone to fly above obstacles.

Nearly every drone today allows you to set a home point or a return to home function.  It’s always best practice to set your home point.

Remember to keep an eye on your battery and warnings.  Don’t get so carried away with follow me filming that you run low on battery power.

Best Follow Me Mode Drones

Almost all of these drones featured below have extra intelligent flight modes such as Waypoints, Orbit, Points Of Interest which give you much more great filming angles and opportunities.

All of the drones below have tremendous gimbal and camera stabilization technologies for capturing awesome video and stills.

DJI Follow Me Drones

Phantom 4: Highlighted above, this UAV uses the ActiveTrack recognition technology to follow and film you. This is the latest Follow Me technology and we will probably see this becoming the standard.   The Phantom 4 has many terrific intelligent flight modes, top of the range stabilization technology and a 4k camera.

The Phantom 4 also has the latest collision avoidance sensors which mean that it will stop or avoid any obstacle it encounters.  Without collision avoidance, if you overlook an obstacle in the follow me path, then unfortunately the mission will have an unhappy ending.

Now, here’s a tremendous positive to Follow Me  technology.  Look how this athlete is benefiting from using a drone with Follow Me mode.  It also shows you how easy it is to setup the ActiveTrack Follow Me mode on the Phantom 4.

Phantom 3 and Inspire 1:  Both of these drones use the GPS on your mobile phone to pass the current location to the Ground Station Controller.  The GSC uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate and fly around the UAV keeping it in frame at all times.  Both the Phantom 3 and Inspire 1 are terrific drones.

One of the great features of DJI drones is that they have 4k cameras with a wide angle lens specifically designed for aerial filming.  You don’t have problems with the rounded horizon or barrel fisheye effect.

Walkera Follow Me Drones

From Aerial Drone with many intelligent flight systems to racing drones, gimbals and cameras, Walkera Technology Co have a vast range.

Voyager 3 and Scout X 4: Both of these drone use the Follow Me GPS mode with Ground Station Controller. Both of these are fantastic drones.

Walkera never hold back when it comes to technology. The Voyager 3 is very similar to the DJI Inspire 1 and has some tremendous technology.  The Scout X4 drone has may additional flight modes such as designated flight with 128 Waypoints, Orbit Object along with Follow Me mode.

Yuneec Follow Me Drone 

 

Typhoon H: Equipped with six rotors, a 360-degree gimbal camera, retractable landing gear, many intelligent flight modes, the Typhoon H is among the best drones available today. Add-ons include a high performance collision avoidance module based on Intel® RealSense™ Technology and an advanced IR camera module.

The 360-degree gimbal with the new CGO3+ camera allows unlimited panning for breathtaking 4K videos and 12 megapixel stills. The landing gear retracts during flight to seamlessly remove itself from the shot for unobstructed views.

Follow Me Mode: There are 2 ways to setup Follow Me mode on the Typhoon H.  You have the normal GPS Transmitter / GSC follow me mode.

Follow Me using Wizard Control: The Typhoon H comes with a Controller Wizard stick. This is a mini stick which you can control the drone to fly, follow and film you.  The Wizard control can be used on it’s own or in conjunction with your mobile device.

The Typhoon H drone comes with many flight modes for capturing unique aerial perspectives.  These new flight and image capture modes include Follow Me, Point of Interest, Orbit, Curved Cable and Journey.

Now here is a terrific video of the Yuneec Typhoon H which show the Wizard Control in action along with an overall review.

Hexo+ Follow Me Drone

The Hexo+ is super cool drone. It was designed specifically to follow and film you using only your smartphone.  No remote control required.  Follow me flight only takes a couple of taps in the software.  Best of all,  you get a terrific choice of follow me flight options such as

• Follow – Far Away or close
• Hover – High or close
• 360 Degrees – Far away or close
• Slide Sideways – From left or right
• Slide In – Towards Me
• Slide Out – From Me

You can also fly the Hexo+ with a mobile device acting like a magic wand.  Pretty cool indeed.

Lily Follow Me Drone

The Lily is one amazing drone.  You just switch it on, throw the Lily into the air and let it follow you.  You wear a wrist tracking device and the Lily will follow and film you.  To land, the Lily comes back to your hand which has the tracking device.  Very simple indeed.

It’s simplicity will appeal to the very beginner. However even seasoned professional are enjoying the wonderfully innovative drone. It also capture pretty amazing cinematic footage. Lily is also waterproof, ultra-portable, and shoots stunning HD pictures and videos.

The Lily Follow Me drone is still at the pre-order stage and should ship in August 2016.

AirDog Auto Follow Me Drone

AirDog is a small, fast, agile and foldable quadcopter specifically designed for filmmakers and action sports enthusiasts who use GoPro cameras.  It is waterproof, tough and ultra reliable.

Setting up Follow Me mode is very simple.  It is programmed from the wearable wrist device called the AirLeash. AirDog takes off, follows and lands autonomously.  You can make altitude, distance and angle adjustments easily while the AirDog is flying.  There is also a Smartphone App where various flight modes can be adjusted or new flight modes can be downloaded and programmed.

While this drone may not look as elegant as some of the others, it does what it is designed to do extremely well. The engineers over at AirDog worked with athletes from many sports to create various sports modes such as Wakeboard (Cable Park), MTB, Surf, Windsurf, Backcountry with many more in development.

3DR Follow Me Drone

SOLO Drone: 3DR designed this drone specifically for the very popular GoPro Hero cameras.  It has excellent flight and gimbal stabilization giving stunning aerial film and stills.

It’s open design allows for new features, updates and hardware to be developed over time.  It even comes with an extra accessory bay for new devices.  The SOLO gets better with age.

The 3DR SOLO has many extra intelligent flight modes making this one terrific drone.  These intelligent flight modes include Orbit, Selfie, Follow Me and Cable Cam.  2 new flight modes called Pano (Panorama) and Zipline are being developed.

SOLO Follow Me: This mode keeps the camera centered on you at all times, capturing your every move. You can also enter “Free Look” mode at any time to take control of the camera yourself.

Follow Me mode on the SOLO is very easy to setup.  You just launch the Solo app and choose Follow.  Now Solo is locked onto your mobile device—which must remain with your controller—and you’re ready to film all the action.