Taking EVO II for a Walk

JD takes his new Autel EVO II Pro 6K drone out for a walk. The idea was to try out the autonomous Parallel Tracking mode and test out the drone's obstacle avoidance and navigation skills. The drone lost JD twice behind some tree branches at the start and the end of the walk.

Unlike his Yuneec Typhoon H drone's tracking which follows the GPS location of the radio controller even if it's obscured, the EVO II tracks an object designated as the target in the video. It must see the target to track it. Other than those two target losses, the drone managed to parallel JD's walk just fine. And surprisingly, it chose to duck under some tree branches rather than rise above them on the way back. It dropped to an altitude of about four feet to miss the branches.

The EVO has a total of 12 obstacle avoidance sensors spread across each face of the drone. The old Typhoon H avoided obstacles with just two optical sensors by always facing them into the direction of travel. It's retractable landing gear allowed the 4K camera to lock onto the tracking target independent of the drone's travel direction.

4K video edited in Pinnacle Studio 23, which also provided the Scorefitter soundtrack.