近日，Skydio公布了進行遠程無人機操控的Skydio Dock。

Recently, Skydio finally released its Skydio Dock for truly remote drone operations.

依稀記得，Skydio在兩年半前首次揭開了其機巢的面紗，最初的原型是一個小型的金屬盒子。

If you remember, Skydio initially unveiled their dock about two and a half years ago, and that initial prototype was a tiny metal box.

自那之后，他們一直對其軟件和硬件進行改進，以開發最終版本的機巢，讓它看起來獨具Skydio特色，完美匹配其無人機的設計美感。

Since then, they have been making refinements to the hardware and software to develop their final version of the dock, which just looks so Skydio. Like, it matches the design aesthetic of their drones perfectly.

據說，機巢的功能是十分強大的。在你真正了解細節和幕后的過程之前，你無法真正理解讓其運作到底需要耗費多大的努力。也就是說，它不只是一個裝載和保護無人機的盒子。

With that said, the functionality of the dock is equally as impressive, and you don’t really understand how much goes into making it work, until you learn the nuances and what’s happening behind the scenes. Like, it’s not just a box that holds and protects a drone. 

Skydio Dock和 Dock Lite

Skydio Dock and Dock Lite

Skydio有兩個版本的機巢讓人驚艷。

So Skydio actually surprised us with 2 versions of the dock.

當然，我們有標準的機巢，完全裝載無人機，它主要是戶外用途，保護無人機免受各種因素的影響。不管是炎熱還是寒冷，下雨還是刮風，該無人機能夠放置其中，并始終處于充電狀態，直到它需要被用到。

We, of course, have the standard dock that fully encloses the drone, and is built for outdoor use. This protects the drone from the elements. Whether it is hot, cold, rainy, or dusty, the drone can sit inside here and stay charged until it’s needed. 

更驚喜的是，盡管Dock Lite是一個小型的碳纖維三腳架，其上方安裝了著陸區。它的功能和全尺寸的機巢是一樣的，只是沒有保護功能。

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government introduced legislation Monday that 

那么，Dock Lite則是室內用的完美選擇，其最顯著的益處就是更實惠。

That makes the Dock Lite perfect for indoor use and comes with the obvious benefit of being more affordable.

為了更好地了解機巢的工作原理，前面有一個聚碳酸酯門，可以打開以允許手臂伸出。無人機位于該臂的末端，被抱在一個小的杯形著陸區，完美契合掛式電池。

To better understand how the dock works—there is a polycarbonate door in the front that opens to allow the arm to extend out. The drone sits on the end of this arm, cradled in a small cup-shaped landing area that fits the underslung battery perfectly. 

一旦手臂完全伸出，門就會在其后面關閉，這樣螺旋槳就不會讓任何灰塵、污垢或碎屑進入機巢。

once the arm is fully extended, the door closes behind it so that the propellers don’t kick up any dust, dirt, or debris into the dock itself. 

當無人機起飛時，它會進行360度旋轉，校準導航攝像頭，然后懸停。

As the drone takes off, it does a 360 spin, that calibrates the navigation cameras and then comes to a hover.

從這里，它將開始其任務，可以通過Skydio的遠程操作軟件實時觀看。因此，你可以準確地看到它每時每刻都在做什么，從它的遙測到它正在捕獲的圖像。

From here, it will embark on its mission, which can be viewed live through Skydio’s Remote Ops software. So, you can see exactly what it’s doing at every moment, from its telemetry to the images that it’s capturing.

不過，這不是必需的，因為無人機是完全自主的。因此，在你設定了這個任務之后，它就會知道什么時候需要起飛，以及它需要做什么。一旦完成飛行計劃，它將降落并上傳該數據，供您與您的團隊一起分析。

This isn’t necessary, though, as the drone is fully autonomous. So after you set that mission, it will know when it needs to take off, and what it needs to do. And once it’s finished that flight plan, it will land and upload that data for you to analyze with your team.

說到著陸，這也許是我最喜歡的部分，看到手臂伸出機巢，無人機自行降落，然后最終降落在那個小著陸杯上。

Speaking of landing, this is perhaps my favorite part, seeing the arm extend back out of the dock, the drone coming back down on its own, and then eventually touching down on that small landing cup.

這一設計元素十分機智，因為它讓無人機每次都能夠完美連接充電針腳，這樣它就能為下次任務做準備。

This design element is really clever, as it allows the drone to perfectly connect to the charging pins each time, so it’s ready for the next mission.

說到充電，使用機巢時，您必須確保使用的是底部帶有充電引腳的新電池。

Speaking of charging, when using the dock, you’ll have to make sure you are using the new batteries that have charging pins on the bottom.

著陸區有另一組引腳，用于連接并為電池供電。

The landing area has another set of pins that make a connection and supply power to the battery.

在與Skydio的團隊交談時，他們希望用盡可能少的活動部件來簡化充電，這樣故障點就很少。

In talking to Skydio’ s team, they wanted to simplify the charging with as few moving parts as possible, so there are very few points of failure. 

一些機巢站在外殼內具有非常復雜的機制，例如在無人機上換電池，但在Skydio機巢的情況下，您可以同時運行多個機巢。

Some docking stations have really complicated mechanisms inside the enclosure to like swapping the battery on the drone, but in the case of the Skydio dock, you could just run multiple docks in tandem.

現在，為了管理多架無人機，如果您處于需要的情況下，Skydio的遠程操作軟件讓您能夠輕松查看您的機隊、每架無人機和機巢的狀態。

Now in order to manage multiple drones, if you are in a situation where you need to, Skydio’s Remote Ops software gives you the ability to easily view your fleet, the status of each drone, and the dock.

總的來說，手動控制它們中的每一個是必要的。這意味著您甚至可以擁有這些機巢之一，并能夠使用遠程操作，因為直接從您的網絡瀏覽器，您可以完全控制無人機。

And ultimately, control each of them manually is necessary. This means that you can even have one of these docks and be able to make use of remote ops as, right from your web browser, you have full control over the drone.

讓我給你一個場景。您是建筑工地的項目經理，您的客戶要求您確認已交付，例如鐵梁。

So let me give you a scenario. You’re a project manager on a construction site and your client is asking for you to confirm that a delivery has been made of, let’s say, iron beams.

與其走遍工作現場，你可以在任何有互聯網連接的地方，拿起你的筆記本電腦，然后手動控制那架無人機，飛到你需要去的地方。

Rather than walk the job site, you could be anywhere with an internet connection, grab your laptop, and then manually take control of that drone and fly to where you need to go.

您可以抓取一張照片，然后在您登陸后將其上傳到云端。你可以去存下那張照片，然后把它發給你的客戶。請記住，這可以從任何地方完成。同樣，你可以在你家、辦公室或全國各地完成這個任務。

You can grab a picture, which will then be uploaded to the cloud once you land. You can go grab that picture, and send it to your client. And remember, this can be done from anywhere. Likewise, you could be at your house, in the office, or across the country and complete this mission.

正如我所提到的，這些機巢任務也可以在室內完成。因此，我們執行的遠程行動任務是在大約20英里外的Skydio總部的機巢倉庫內進行的。

These dock missions can also be completed indoors, as I’ve mentioned. So, the remote ops missions that we were flying were inside the dock warehouse from Skydio’s headquarters, which is about 20 miles away. 

你基本上只是使用鍵盤和鼠標，就像你在玩視頻游戲來操縱無人機一樣。

You basically just use your keyboard and mouse like you’re playing a video game to maneuver the drone around. 

這是一種非常流暢和無壓力的體驗，因為Skydio的自主性確保無人機即使在狹窄的空間內也不會墜毀。

It’s a really fluid and stress-free experience, as Skydio’s autonomy ensures the drone doesn’t crash, even in tight spaces. 

這使得飛行體驗感覺非常獨特，但同樣獨特的是那些室內自動飛行，即無人機可以在預先計劃的飛行任務中在內部飛行，并在適應環境的同時在現場周圍捕獲不同的圖像。

This makes the flight experience feel really unique, but what’s also unique is those indoor automated flights where the drone can fly around inside on a preplanned flight mission and capture different images around the site while adapting to the environment.

可以想象，倉庫或建筑工地的內部在不斷變化，但Skydio足夠智能，可以自己做出決定并改變其飛行路徑以確保安全操作。

As you can imagine, the inside of a warehouse or construction site is constantly changing, but the Skydio is smart enough to make decisions on its own and alter its flight path for safe operation.

對于這些可重復的飛行，Skydio使用其視覺定位系統構建地圖，記錄特定地標，以使未來的任務更容易。

For these repeatable flights, Skydio uses its visual positioning system to build a map that notes specific landmarks to make future missions easier.

然后將此地圖上傳到您的云盤中，并可以與可能執行相同任務的其他無人機共享。

This map is then uploaded to your cloud and can be shared with other drones that might be running the same mission.

這為您的Skydio提供了“長期記憶”，以提供更準確的飛行，差異低至10-20厘米。

This gives your Skydio a“long-term memory” to deliver more accurate flights that are down to a 10-20 cm difference.

這比視覺慣性里程計（VIO）精確得多，后者可能會在行進距離的1-5%之間漂移，當無人機的機載導航攝像頭使用本地特征來預估運動的時候。

This is far more accurate than VIO, or Visual Inertial Odometry, which can potentially drift between 1-5% of your distance traveled. This is when the drone’s onboard navigation cameras would use local features to estimate motion.

為了展示Skydio的無人機在兩次飛行之間的準確性，我想分享兩個具體的例子。

To demonstrate just how accurate Skydio’s drones are between flights, there are two specific examples that I want to share.

第一個是這個小型建筑項目的戶外飛行。無人機以30分鐘的間隔運行相同的可重復任務，能夠自主地從碼頭部署，捕獲飛行路徑上被告知的所有圖像，然后降落充電。

The first is an outdoor flight on this small construction project. Running the same repeatable mission on a 30-minute interval, the drone was able to deploy from the dock autonomously, capture all the images it was told to on its flight path, and then land to recharge. 

在飛行之間拍攝的每張圖像都是從同一地點拍攝的，幾乎沒有偏差，這也適用于視頻，允許您在項目過程中創建一些非常酷的延時攝影。

Each image captured between flights is taken from the same spot with little deviation, and this goes for video, too, allowing you to create some pretty cool time-lapses over the course of your project. 

下一個例子是在這個狹窄的小角落里進行的室內飛行。就像外部任務一樣，在24小時內每30分鐘拍攝一次照片，無人機能夠在每次飛行之間保持相似的位置。

The next example is from an indoor flight in this tight little corner of a clock. Just like the exterior mission, photos were taken every 30 minutes over a 24-hour period, and the drone was able to maintain a similar position between each flight. 

這種精度水平最終將使無人機在室內和室外的任何飛行中都更安全，也會給你帶來更好的結果。

This level of accuracy will ultimately make the drone safer for any flight, both indoors and out, but it will also give you better results.

您的照片和視頻每次都相同，并且在多次飛行過程中不會偏離該地點。

Your photos and videos will be the same each time and won’t deviate from that spot over the course of multiple flights.

想想看，您可以使用Skydio和機巢來計劃一項自主任務，每小時拍攝一張煉油廠周圍壓力表的照片。

Think about this—you can use the Skydio and dock to plan an autonomous mission that captures a photo of the pressure gauges around a refinery every hour.

由于視覺定位系統的精確性，您可以確保壓力表將被正確拍攝，而不是說獲得一張偏離其標記5 英尺的照片并丟失該小時的信息。

Thanks to how accurate the visual positioning system is, you can be sure that the pressure gauge will be properly photographed instead of say getting a photo that is 5 feet off of its mark and missing that information for that hour. 

所以總的來說，我認為Skydio的機巢將在建筑工地、煉油廠、倉庫內部以及任何可以使用持續監控的地方得到大量使用。

So overall, I think that Skydio’s dock is going to get a lot of use across construction sites, refineries, inside of warehouses, and really anywhere that you can use constant monitoring. 

我的意思是，我想得越多，可能有更多的地方可以通過機巢帶來提出，而不是不能使用機巢的地方。

I mean, the more I think about it, there are probably more places that could benefit from having a dock on site than places that couldn’t. 

在惡劣的天氣和不支持GPS的環境中，Skydio的無人機將能夠工作并安全地在地形中導航。

Through harsh weather and GPS-denied environments, Skydio’s drone will be able to work and safely navigate the terrain.