- Aerial Photography: the hobby of capturing images and video while in the air with a cameramounted to your drone.UAVs or drones have given introduced added a new lexicon of aeronautical terms to my life. Before we go any further I will list and define some of the most used.
- APM (AutoPilot Mega): Flight Controller providing capabilities for stabilized flight, position maintenance and automated mission (waypoint) path following.
- Autonomous: Widely used to describe drones that have been set to a path, rather than being under direct control by radio signal
- Drone: UAV capable of autonomous flight.
- FPV: First-Person View. A technique that uses an onboard video camera and wireless connection to the ground allow a pilot on the ground with video goggles to fly with a cockpit view.
- GPS: Global Positioning System
- GCS: Ground Control Station. Software running on a computer on the ground that receives telemetry information from an airborne UAV and displays its progress and status, often including video and other sensor data. Can also be used to transmit in-flight commands to the UAV
- MAVLink: The Micro Air Vehicle communications Link protocol used by the ArduCopter and ArduPlane line of autopilots.
- MU: An inertial Inertial measurement Measurement Unit. Usually has at least three accelerometers (measuring the gravity vector in the x, ,y and z dimensions) and two gyros (measuring rotation around the tilt and pitch axis). Neither are sufficient by themselves, since accelerometers are thrown off by movement (ie, they are ““noisy”” over short periods of time), while gyros drift over time. The data from both types of sensors must be combined in software to determine true aircraft attitude and movement.
- Multicopter: A generic name for a drone with multiple propellers. This covers quadcopters, octocopters, etc.
- Pixhawk: The next-gen 32-bit autopilot, which succeeded APM. A collaboration between 3D Robotics and the PX4 team at ETH, the technical university in Zurich
- POI: Point of Of Interest, also known as Region of Interest. Designates a spot that a UAV should keep a camera pointed towards.
- Quadcopter: UAV with 4 propellers, typically situated in a square formation for smooth and precise flight.
- Region of Interest (ROI): points allow flyers to keep the camera centered on a subject regardless of flight path
- RTL: Return To Launch. Return the aircraft to the “home” position where it took off.
- UAV: unmanned aerial vehicle. A device that can propel itself through the air without a pilot onboard. Drones and quadcopters are UAVs.
- Way-point: A description of a set place. e.g. You can set a few waypoints for a drone and it will fly to them in order.
Read Al Caudullo’s Magic Flight (Part I and Part II) articles in the 2015 Summer Edition of HD Pro Guide Magazine. Watch his video here: www.www.hdproguide.com/magicflight
