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Intelligent Control UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts Evaluation

  2018-06-11

introduce:This small UAV, in addition to being possibly the tiniest one in the world, is also likely to be a new generation of small UAV that launches first and uses cell phone chips at present. The editor had proactively exposed the sneak previews of small DO

This small UAV, in addition to being possibly the tiniest one in the world, is also likely to be a new generation of smallUAV that launches first and uses cell phone chips at present. The editor had proactively exposed the sneak previews of small DOBBY to you before, and now, we will also take the first step to uncover a new page in the UAV history to you in advance.

Overall design

The box on the left is iPhone 6, and the right one is DOBBY. From the aspect of that ZeroTech, in some way, designs UAV’s box as the style and size of smart phone’s box, we can see the ambiguous relationship between this UAV and the smart phone.

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation

Although the concept of UAV is very hot in recent years, its body has been very unwieldy, making its way to mass become bumpy. The editor has also reported that many companies in recent years have been trying to reduce the size of such intelligent vehicle, but the result was that either the actual products were disappointing, or the manufacturers only made a lip-service.

It was not until the collaboration of Qualcomm and ZeroTech at last year’s end and the SoC integrated computing chips used by smartphones were adopted as UAV’s brain, that the gate of the mini type UAV Era had been opened.

Also because of this, the use scenario of UAV has been expanded from the original high altitude “aerial photography” to low altitude self timer.

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation

However, in addition to make DOBBY smaller by using Qualcomm chips, its another feature is the folding fuselage, which can be seen in the picture above. From the picture below we can see that all the arms and propellers of DOBBY can be folded and hidden under the bottom.

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation


When DOBBY is unfolded, we can see that its propellers do not adopt the anecdotal clasp design but make the propeller blades at a state of complete loosening and activity, and in flight, the centrifugal force that completely dependent on motor will open the blades (shown below).

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation

Such design can lessen the parts and further miniaturize UAV, but our science geek, Li Geng, worries that this design is relatively low in efficiency and will affect the ability of wind resistance and endurance. Is this true? We’ll report it to you in the coming few days.

Indeed, the propeller occupies an important position in UAV’s power system: under the same type of motor, the longer blades can provide a stronger climbing power, better wind resistance and better battery efficiency.

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation

From the picture we can see that, the gyration radius of DOBBY blades has just skimmed over its bottom, and the length of every inch has been used up to strengthen its ability of wind resistance and endurance. The users must be careful to maintain the blades: when the UAV is flying, the blades often suffer a slight bend due to the inertia, and if the blades are upturned because of poor maintenance, they are very possible to hit the fuselage, which may cause the UAV out of control.

Fuselage size

How tiny is DOBBY? The digits may puzzle us, but the picture can make it clear.

The picture below is a comparison between DOBBY and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus: when completely folded, DOBBY is even smaller than iPhone 6S Plus, and its size is similar to iPhone 6.

Intelligent Co<em></em>ntrol UAV DOBBY of Zero Starts e<em></em>valuation

After fully unfolded (shown below), the size of DOBBY is about that of two sets of iPhone 6S Plus.


  

dobby-7

Although the size of DOBBY is similar to that of iPhone 6, we can not expect it’s as slim as iPhone. The following is a comparison between batteries of DOBBY and DJI Phantom 3, and the thickness of DOBBY is similar to that of general UAV’s battery.

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We can see DOBBY from the side that its folding design is very compact, and its two arms and two sets of blades can just right be hidden into the bottom.

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When the arms are unfolded, the fuselage is almost enlarged twofold (shown below)

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Please note that:

DOBBY does not have a landing gear, so it lands by using its bottom directly. Because the bottom has the parts such as optical flow inductor and so on, if the ground surface is uneven, the parts at the bottom may be damaged. Maybe that’s why ZeroTech still attempts to develop the function of “palm landing”;

Qualcomm mobile chip is always “well-known” as high amount of heat generation, so, DOBBY must be equipped with mini fans and heat dissipating holes at the tail.

Other details

The main lens of DOBBY shown below still adopts the Monitor level (Point-of-view) lens, but unlike the general monitor level lenses, it uses a 4K camera lens - but it does not shoot a 4K video for you, but uses this quality to collect images, and then through the design ability of Snapdragon 801 chip, it clips and merges in the 4K images and carries out instant augmentation to finally output a stable video of 1080p.


  dobby-11

The biggest problem of this lens is perhaps the pitching angle. From the picture above, we can see that the lens is at an overlooking state, but it’s adjusted by hand, and the pitching of lens can not be remotely controlled by mobile phone APP... Self timer scenes of UAV often use overlooking angles, but DOBBY can only be adjusted by hand at present, which will in fact bring inconvenience.

We have heard that, DOBBY’s lens angle may be adjusted through APP in the future.

DOBBY's main application scene is "self timer”, but even if the Official of ZeroTech hopes that the users can use it more outdoors, a lot of self timer scenes may still appear within doors. Therefore, we can see from the right of picture below that, DOBBY also has an optical flow inductive location system at the bottom (ultrasonic determines height and camera lens determines location).

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As for the battery, its specification is 2 batteries of 970 mAh (7.37 Whr), i.e. the battery pack with a voltage of 7.4V, on which the LED light can indicate electricity amount. Moreover, please note that, the Micro-USB interface above the battery LED lamp can only be used to transmit data rather than to charge.

Battery capacity of 970 mAh is not too large, and the Official claims that it only have an endurance of about 9 minutes; in general, batteries of UAVs cannot be charged by the USB powerbank with a voltage of only 5V, but the truth is...

dobby-16

As shown in the picture above, the battery of DOBBY can be charged by powerbank, so even if the electricity is used up during shopping, it can also be charged by powerbank temporarily. Of course, the powerbank shown on the right of the picture above will be bought by yourself (laughing...), but virtually all of the general powerbanks can be used to charge it.

The key reason why it can be charged by powerbank is due to the dedicated powerbank made by BYD in the middle part of the picture below; its input is 5V/2A or 9V/1.5A, output is 3.7V/1.5A, and it supports the Quick Charge technology of Qualcomm.

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However, it uses the USB-C interface (who has the Type-C charge line?!); but ZeroTech is also very thoughtful, it provides the conversion plug of USB-C? Micro-USB while providing USB-C charging line (why not the “Micro-USB? USB-C”??).

Please keep your attention, and we will bring you the first-hand detailed evaluation as early as possible

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