For those of you who are new to the world of drones…where have you been?! Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have taken oven the recreational world and are already being used in many industries, such as e-commerce, real estate and movie making to name but a few.
Drones come in many different designs, sizes and with varying technological features, and if you’re looking to purchase one for yourself, a lot will obviously depend on your budget. Some of the major features of drones that will affect their price, are such things as camera specs, social media compatibility and in-built tech like processors and storage. One feature that is important to a drone though, is GPS compatibility. Most drones at the top end of the budget scale, have GPS compatibility, while those at the lower end, do not.
So, is it worth paying extra for this feature? Here, we look at how important it is that a drone be compatible with GPS:
What will you be using your drone for?
If you’re going to be flying your drone only at home or perhaps at the office, then the chances of it crashing or flying away are greatly reduced, making the need for GPS compatibility, equally reduced. However, if you’re going to be flying your drone in public places or taking it on vacation with you, then this feature becomes vastly more important.
To help you decide if GPS is going to be important in the drone that you want to buy, listed below are some of the features of GPS connected drones:
Some features of GPS enabled drones:
- Position hold
This feature is increasingly being used in the smaller drones, and gives them the ability to be able to hover above the ground in one place. If you were to fly your drone and have it hover seven feet above the ground, it would hold that altitude and location even when you’re not holding on to the control.
This feature is particularly handy for novices who may begin flying their drone, and then suddenly realise that they don’t know what they want it to do next, where they want it to go, or how to avoid an upcoming obstacle.
- Return to home
Common in mid-range drones, this feature enables drones to return to the point from which it took off in case of an emergency, should you lose the signal, or its battery level is dangerously low.
This feature is usually enabled at the touch of a button, which can be reassuring for novices.
- Autonomous flight
An autonomous flight is possible when GPS locations are established on your computer or hand-held device, and then when you say ‘go’, the drone flies off on a predetermined route without you even needing to touch the controls.
- Object avoidance
Newer and higher priced drones come with ‘safe flight technology’, which allows drone operators to appoint areas where they don’t want their drone to fly, and this can (and should) include airports and other restricted air spaces, which can get you into a whole lot of trouble!
So, in conclusion, you can see from the features above that having a GPS enabled drone is of great advantage, particularly to novice operators, but of course your budget may restrict you as to how many of these features your new drone might possess.
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