SkyDance and Pixis Drones Raid Houston Texas

[skydanceimaging]

Well, I just finished the Houston Pixis drone show video.

I hope you guys enjoy it...

 

[Cat Eyes]

Wow, that was cool. Was always curious about the behind the scenes.

 

[skydanceimaging]

Wow, that was cool. Was always curious about the behind the scenes.

I thought the behind-the-scenes would be of interest to other pilots, glad you liked it! No crashes and happy skies brother!

 

[Donnie Frank]

Very kewl!

While the aesthetics of this presentation are pretty awesome, I'm more curious about the logistics of such an undertaking. Off the top of my head "battery management" is the first thing that comes to mind. I noticed in one of the shots the drones were stacked upon one another. This leads me to believe that *maybe* the charging leads are in the legs?? And stacking them simply creates a parallel circuit for charging, yes? And the number of drones that can be stacked is limited by the amount of amperage the charger can source, yes? I'm I onto something here?

I also assume that maybe data (programming/linking, etc.) is being passed between drones through the legs?

How is the hive divided? Are they all autonomous? Or grouped?

What kind of telemetry data is delivered to the receiver? I assume standard battery information in addition to positioning information. Anything beyond that?

I assume that the drones find their position via triangulation from strategically-placed base stations in kind of an RTK situation, as opposed to GPS or GLONASS, yes?

Kewl stuff, man!

D

 

[skydanceimaging]

Very kewl!

While the aesthetics of this presentation are pretty awesome, I'm more curious about the logistics of such an undertaking. Off the top of my head "battery management" is the first thing that comes to mind. I noticed in one of the shots the drones were stacked upon one another. This leads me to believe that *maybe* the charging leads are in the legs?? And stacking them simply creates a parallel circuit for charging, yes? And the number of drones that can be stacked is limited by the amount of amperage the charger can source, yes? I'm I onto something here?

I also assume that maybe data (programming/linking, etc.) is being passed between drones through the legs?

How is the hive divided? Are they all autonomous? Or grouped?

What kind of telemetry data is delivered to the receiver? I assume standard battery information in addition to positioning information. Anything beyond that?

I assume that the drones find their position via triangulation from strategically-placed base stations in kind of an RTK situation, as opposed to GPS or GLONASS, yes?

Kewl stuff, man!

D

Thanks for the compliment!

The only answer I have about the tech is they are running 4S 4400 batts. Didn't really have time to get into a tech Q&A with the flight director as we were busy focusing on airspace management, routes...general show planning and he was sooooo busy with everyone (staff, HPD, FAA) I didn't want to bog him down with questions.

One other thing I might add about positional acquisition, they are run on an RTK system and a very complex ground control station.

We had a very tight geo-fence due to the area and local crowds.

Oh, he did tell me about the Superbowl show they did with 500 birds. Three shows that day so they had to charge 1,500 batteries!

Wish I could tell you more, I am really glad you liked the video!