By Evan Ackerman4 May 2015 21:00 GMTCyPhy Works Launches Drone That Makes Aerial Video Easy and Intuitive Image: CyPhy Works This camera drone can shoot stable video without a gimbal.

CyPhy Works makes drones that are unique predominantly because they use a microfilament tether to carry power and data that allows for unlimited flight time and flawless high resolution video streaming. We would have expected that their next drone would have leveraged this technology somehow, but apparently, some engineers at CyPhy had a clever idea and decided to Kickstart a new drone that takes advantage of it with the ability to fly around while remaining completely level.

If you want to use your drone to take good video, you usually have to spend an extra eleventy bajillion dollars (or thereabouts) on a stabilized camera gimbal. But seriously, gimbals are expensive: 3D Robotics, for example, sells a gimbal for its Solo drone that (at US $400) is nearly half the cost of the entire drone itself. The reason that you need a gimbal is that whenever the drone moves in any direction besides vertically, it either pitches or rolls, which messes up the orientation of your video unless the gimbal compensates for it. Additionally, a drone that’s pitching or rolling is much harder to steer, because control axes start to shift around.

This is all annoying. So can someone fix it, please?

Nice, right? By adding a different horizontal thrust component to each rotor and varying the rotor speed (along with some “fancy math”), the CyPhy engineers enabled the LVL 1 drone to translate in any direction, no pitch or roll required. The camera doesn’t need a gimbal, meaning that you can tuck it right into the body of the drone, saving on cost and weight and making crash landings a lot less destructive.

Here’s what we’re looking at with the LVL 1: It’s a hexcopter with a 1080p camera that can tilt 90 degrees, 20+ minutes of flight time, battery that charges over USB 3.1, GPS and optical flight stabilization, waypoint following and geofencing, payload mounts (with onboard data and power interfaces), and you control it with an app over WiFi, although you can also use a traditional R/C controller, which is a feature that we love. Also, that level flight capability? You can switch it off if you want to do acrobatics.

The LVL 1 is now on Kickstarter (seeking $250k in funding); the first batch went for $400, and the second for $450, but $500 is now the going rate. That’ll get you one drone, a charger, a charging cable, and the app to control it is free.

There are a few other things that are worth paying attention to on the LVL 1, like visual feature tracking and the ability to follow you around based on the GPS location of your cell phone. The drone also has the capability of recovering from a motor failure or prop loss, and in some cases, it can even deal with losing two motors at once, flying on just four out of six.

We asked CyPhy CEO Helen Greiner about where the idea for this drone came from, and the answer is straightforward: “We invented this great technology that makes drones fly better. Seems a shame not to share it with consumers.” We were also wondering about just exactly how the level flight capability works and how it compares to a conventional drone, and Greiner promised to tell us all about it, just not in the middle of their launch day. We’ll put together an in-depth article on LVL 1, but for now, this thing looks totally cool, and you have until June 18 to decide if you want one for delivery in February of next year.

[ Kickstarter ]

CyPhy Works推出的无人机让航拍视频变得方便而直观！

cyphy作品展开无人机航拍视频图像进行简单intuitive：这种无人机摄像头可以拍摄CyPhy工程稳定的视频没有框架。

CyPhy工场使得无人机是唯一的主要是因为他们使用微丝系绳携带电源和数据，允许无限的飞行时间和高分辨率的视频流。我们希望他们的未来无人机将杠杆这一技术在某种程度上，但很显然，在CyPhy一些工程师想出一个聪明的主意，决定创建一个新的无人机，利用它与绕飞而其余的完全水平的能力。

如果你想使用你的无人机拍好的视频，你通常要花费额外的 ；111数不清的美元（左右）在一个稳定的相机框架。但是说真的，后者是昂贵的：例如3D机器人，销售其个人无人机的万向节，（400美元）是 ；近一半的整个无人机本身的成本。你需要一个框架的原因是，当无人机在任何方向移动，除了垂直，它的球场或卷，搅乱了你的视频 取向；除非万向补偿它。此外，无人机，&rsquo；的俯仰或滚动很难控制，因为控制轴开始移动。

这都是讨厌的。所以可以有人修理它，请？< /对/对/很好，对不对？通过对每个转子添加不同水平推力分量和不同转速（连同一些&ldquo；喜欢数学&rdquo；），该CyPhy工程师 ；启用1级的无人机在任何方向上平移，不俯仰要求。相机不能&rsquo；不需要一个框架，这意味着你可以把它放进无人机机体，节省成本和重量，使迫降少了很多破坏。

这里&rsquo；是我们'；再看1级：这是一个hexcopter； ；一 ；1080p的摄像头，可以90度旋转， ；20分钟的飞行时间，电池，USB 3.1收费，GPS和光学飞行稳定，点以下和地理围栏，有效载荷支架（机载数据和电源接口），& nbsp；你控制它的WiFi应用，虽然你也可以使用传统的R / C控制器，这是一个功能，我们的爱。还有，那个级别的飞行能力？你可以关掉它，如果你想做杂技。

< P > 1级现在在Kickstarter（寻求25万美元的资金）；第一批了400美元，第二450美元，但现在500美元现价。这会给你一个；无人机，充电器，充电电缆，和应用程序来控制它是免费的。

还有一些其他的东西，都是值得关注的1级，如视觉特征跟踪和跟随你左右，基于你的细胞手机GPS定位能力。无人机也从电机故障或道具的损失中恢复的能力，并在某些情况下，它甚至可以处理同时失去两个电机，在四出六飞。

我们问CyPhy CEO海伦Greiner关于这个想法的无人机来自，和答案很简单：&ldquo；我们发明了这个伟大的技术，使飞机飞得更好。似乎不与消费者分享这一耻辱。&rdquo；我们也不知道到底 ；如何在水平飞行的能力，它与传统的无人机和格雷纳答应告诉我们有关它的一切，只是不在他们中间的发射天。我们会放在1级；深入的文章，但现在，这件事看起来很酷，你要到6月18日才决定是否要一个明年二月交货。