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Meet the Skydio R1: A portable A.I. camera drone that truly flies itself

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Introducing the Skydio Autonomy Engine

Another drone with built-in camera isn’t all that exciting, right? Try telling that to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering graduates at Skydio who this week introduced their new R1 flying action cam. Utilizing 13 cameras to view the world and an Nvidia Jetson chip more commonly used in self-driving cars, the R1 promises to be the smartest flying 4K camera you ever tried — with its guiding mission being to keep you in the frame at all times while dodging any obstacles around it.

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“The R1 was designed for full autonomy,” Skydio’s CEO and co-founder Adam Bry told Digital Trends. “With other drones the autonomy features are targeted as pilot assistance, and they’re generally designed with the notion that there’s still a pilot ready to take over at a moment’s notice. Getting beyond this is very technically challenging, but that’s what we’ve been focused on for the last four years — and that’s what makes R1 special.”

The system is based on state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms, which are able to look at raw images and simultaneously balance obstacle avoidance and the need to capture amazing video. Navigating by sight is a frankly amazing challenge, and it is one that R1 seems to be able to pull off pretty darn effortlessly, all while traveling at speeds of more than 20 mph.

Skydio R1: Running Hurdles with Olympian Mikel Thomas

At $2,499, it’s not cheap, and its battery life is limited to 16 minutes, but if you’re in the market for a great action cam, the R1 should totally be at the top of your list. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for a hands-free recording of your practices or an outdoors enthusiast who hopes to capture some stunning vistas, this looks like a brilliant bit of tech.

“There’s potential for a broad range of applications, but initially, we see this as a product that sports enthusiasts, adventurers, creators and early adopters will love,” Bry continued. “There are always going to be people that enjoy flying a drone, but the R1 is less about flying a drone manually and more about being able to create content that you wouldn’t normally be able to create.”

We can’t wait to put it through its obstacle-avoiding paces!

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Luke Dormehl
Luke Dormehl
Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
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