Guest post by Helicopter Girls drone pilot Katya Nelhams-Wright
2015 is the year of the drone and Kickstarter is a great place to find startups offering the latest in drone technology, designed to help you capture your life from a new aerial perspective.
One new quadcopter that’s had a lot of media coverage recently is LILY. This was partly due to the slick marketing video suggesting LILY is simple enough that your granny could operate it; but the drone itself seems to have been nicely designed and has some interesting features.
A big plus is that it’s waterproof. This is quite rare with current quads and essential for action sports as it allows you to take off on snow or in water without worrying about moisture affecting the electronics. The tech spec claims the quad can be completely submerged in water so I’d think you could even take off in light rain or snow which would be great. Another interesting design decision is that LILY is flown by a dedicated app/wrist tracker so there’s no need to carry around a traditional remote controller, which keeps the whole system lightweight and portable. On the camera side the specs look pretty respectable and camera stabilisation is built in.
So I guess the big question is would I pre-order LILY? Based on what I have seen I would have to say no.
While it’s a fun concept, I’m not sure I think it’s a good idea to have a sky full of personal drones following their owners down a packed ski slope. Apart from the fact most countries have rules about flying even small drones near members of the public, with no avoidance or collision software in place LILY seems like a disaster waiting to happen. The info on the LILY app is limited at the moment but in the FAQs it says you can stop it in mid flight by touching the wrist tracker. However if you’re busy navigating your way down the slope you’re not looking behind you to see if your LILY is about to crash into a tree or hit a fellow snowboarder.
Secondly, LILY’s flight control system is just not robust enough yet as Guardian Journalist Sam Theilman found out when he had a live demo of the prototype.
LILY feels a long way from being ready to ship and the expected date of early 2016 feels pretty optimistic to get it flight tested for the consumer market. That timeframe gives larger, more established multi-rotor companies time to incorporate some of LILY’s features into their own systems which might mean you won’t actually want your pre-ordered copter by the time it’s finally in your hands. If it were my projects I would have kept my machine under wraps a little longer, waited until the flight controller worked better in a real life scenario and looked for more investment through venture capital rather than pre-sales.
About the author: Qualified drone pilot Katya Nelhams-Wright graduated in Documentary Film and Photography from Harvard University and has spent fifteen years shooting documentaries and factual television series as a producer/director. In 2009 Kat began building and flying drones and in 2011 co-founded Helicopter Girls, one of the first multi-rotor companies in the UK to operate drones for television and film. Recent projects include Detectorists, All Aboard! The Canal Trip in BBC 4’s Slow TV season and Mission Impossible 5 for Paramount Pictures.
