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Drones and airsoft useage?

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luke213:
Hey guys and gals, recently a good buddy of mine came up to the area for some other projects and ended up playing airsoft that weekend with me. Well come to find out he had one of the Parrot Bebop drones in his car so we decided to use it to film some of the game. Afterwards I was very impressed at the video quality because of the stabilization very interesting stuff.

Here is the video I tossed together after that first game, keep in mind we really didn't plan ahead here. It was more less "hey we have this cool piece of tech, let's try and make some interesting video with it". But also we're in tree cover which was a huge challenge for me flying the drone since before shooting this I had a whole 6 or so minutes of practice before dodging the branches;) Either way it was very interesting and I think could be used to some good effect to compliment some of the airsoft video's out there by mixing it with gopro footage. I also should mention this was "staged" at least the part filmed, it was after some of the guys left already and without much planning the way guys move and don't take cover etc;) Well it was a test;)



So I'm wondering who else has been playing with this tech for taking airsoft video, and possibly mixing it with gopro footage etc. Also what are you using for hardware? After this was taken I actually got a care package from that same buddy with all hid "old" drone bits and parts and got enough parts and pieces to build out an AR drone 2.0 well actually two of them though one camera isn't functional the rest of the chassis is. I'm considering mounting something like a Mobius to that one for a little better video quality. That said the AR drone is not a stabilized platform so the video certainly won't be as good as that I did in the video above as far as smooth camera movement.

I've also got the idea that once I get this all together it could be used in a larger game for recon type of applications. Right now with the Bebop and the skycontroller it's got a range of around 2km according to specs, likely less with obstructions but still far enough to be interesting. It's fairly easy to fly above the level anyone would have a real chance of shooting it down, and honestly I'm not too concerned with that. If someone can't be trusted to not shoot at equipment which isn't in play and is against the rules so to speak I don't think they have any place playing airsoft. I'm not really planning to bring this to any games beyond the ones I control so if someone shoots it, they won't be playing with the group anymore. With the limited battery life of these drones as well and longish charge times it does limit itself to pretty much a 8-10 minute flight every hour or so depending on how many batteries you've got setup. The AR drones I've been rebuilding are running fairly standard 3s 1300mah lipo cells from Hobby King so it wouldn't be a stretch to get several and be able to run more frequently etc depending on the game.

But that's more of a secondary idea, primarily I'm thinking they could make some interesting in game footage. I did do a bunch of video at the game we did recently at our semi normal field of the sawmill which I'm still working out time to snip together and make a semi cohesive video from including the gopro footage. But I'd love to hear what anyone else has been doing in the same area, as well as ideas from other guys on what they think of the use of drones either for video, or augmenting gameplay in some way.

Take care!

Luke

Canto:
I would support drone usage, I think it's a unique aspect and modern twist on airsoft. Footage for events or aerial reconnaissance would be very cool.

Obviously land owners would need to be consulted prior to usage of any kind, which I don't foresee many issues with that. As for gameplay (recon) use, you can't stop people from shooting it out of the sky.

I've actually been approached by two different people for using it at events.

luke213:

--- Quote from: Canto on January 11, 2016, 04:03:24 PM ---As for gameplay (recon) use, you can't stop people from shooting it out of the sky.


--- End quote ---

I hear that allot in threads talking about it but I really think that's just not a real argument. In airsoft we're having to wrap our heads around allot of things that aren't realistic. IE just pretty much everything but the look of our guns;) So we're emulating allot of things in the real world, if the drone is a real drone, then it would be too high to hit with regular firearms anyways. But also I think saying people can't shoot it, is honestly a fair way to do things. If there was someone who stumbled into the airsoft game area wearing no protective gear, it would be accepted practice to call a cease fire and of course not shoot them. That's a rule for safety, but I think the game rules themselves need to be followed in the same manner. Really I guess I view it like this, if someone told not to shoot the drone does shoot the drone, I see that as the same as someone who doesn't call their hits. If it's a rule of the game and your not following it for whatever reason, then there will be a problem.

Now all of that said I'm still not too worried about it, when we played that last game with them, my same buddy who has less interest in not breaking his equipment than I would. Decided it would be fun to have all the guys shoot at the drone while it was flying around. After much shooting and a few grazing hits there was actually only one that hit the hull enough to embed into it, and the few that grazed off props didn't even mess up anything in the flight. The only way I could tell it was hit in the props was afterwards looking at the slight white BB marks here and there. I'd say out of around 1,000 BB's shot at it, likely had 3-4 hits total none that brought it down and this was at around 30ft from the shooters. If I were using it for recon I'd likely be around 120ish foot above ground and that distance with a moving target would be very difficult to hit, especially with hopup effecting things oddly shooting nearly up. I'll do some testing but I generally suspect the chances of a hit in those circumstances would be nearly unheard of.

Take care!

Luke

Snarf:
I've thought about airsoft drone usage quite a bit, ever since I saw a related thread on airsoftmechanics a while ago. I fully support the use of drones, whether they're normal planes or quadcopters. However, ff they can't shoot at infantry, players shouldn't be able to shoot at the aircraft IMO. Maybe just have a capturable SAM site as an area denial for the drone, if it actually has strategic significance. Either that, or you just have to hide in the woods where the drone can't see you. Honestly, I don't think a drone should ever be shot at, because if you do take it down, you have just created the biggest possible aircraft-related safety hazard (having it falling onto somebody).

When you get down to the technical aspect, I think a long-endurance plane would be much more practical than a quadcopter, for the simple reason of operating time. There's a reason that Predator drones are fixed wing aircraft rather than x-copters. Of course, any sort of aerial recon has the potential to be super cool and add a lot to a milsim experience.

As a side note, the airsoftmechanics thread I referred to was actually talking about airsoft air support, in which the aircraft would actually be armed. Now this throws a whole bunch of new aspects to discuss, but I think figuring out the gameplay mechanics of a simple recon drone would be a good start.

Combat Junkies Airsoft:
I purchased an AR parrot drone for use as an in game UAV drone for surveillance as it has the capability to live stream the footage to an Ipad or smart phone using its own WiFi. So far I have only had the opportunity to use it for capturing game play footage as I've found three major draw backs to making it effective. 1. WiFi; its very limited in its range to truly be effective for real time intelligence. 2. High center of gravity; This particular drone has a very high center of gravity which means it is very easily effected by gusts of wind. A strong gust can easily cause the drone to loose stability and lift leading to a crash. 3. Size; This model is fairly large with the rotor protector installed. It makes it challenging trying to find a way to carry it out on the field and still be combat effective. 

Here is the footage I managed to capture at TC in Charlotte.

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