Simtoo: Data and Sensors
The Simtoo Dragonfly bills itself as the “world’s
first foldable drone” (Simtoo, n.d.). Its
dimensions are tiny, as shown in the picture below,
taken directly from Simtoo’s website:
A UAV this small creates interesting challenges for
designers, both in terms of sensors and memory storage.
The UAV uses micro SD cards to store both photos and
videos (Custer, 2016). This is a small version of the swappable memory system
used by larger drones, and it is a perfect fit for the Dragonfly, as micro SD
cards have the footprint of a thumbnail but can have storage capacities in
excess of two hundred gigabytes (Estrada, 2017). Eliminating onboard storage
was no doubt one of the keys in keeping the Dragonfly small.
According to Simtoo (n.d.), the Dragonfly has six
sensors: a GPS, a gyroscope, a barometer, a magnetometer, an accelerometer, and
a camera capable of taking 4K photos and video. The spec sheet doesn’t indicate
how much power each device draws, but it does state that its working voltage is
3.7 volts, meaning that the Dragonfly utilizes 3.7 volts, on average, during
one hour of flight (Simtoo, n.d.). From this number, we can infer that the
sensors working together do not draw much power at all; in fact, the biggest
consumer of battery power on the Dragonfly is the motor, which is rated at 100 watts.
The sensor with the biggest impact on the Dragonfly’s
data treatment strategy is obviously the camera; as mentioned earlier, the
camera is capable of 4K images, which can quickly consume the available empty
space on the inserted micro SD Card. It becomes clear why Simtoo chose to make micro-SD
cards the sole source of onboard memory, as users can swap cards quickly when
ultra-high definition images consume too much of the installed card’s storage
space.
The Dragonfly seems to work well, but it is not
perfect. The swappable SD cards have the potential to give the operator virtual
acres of space, but nothing is in place to compensate for the drone running out
of storage in the middle of a crucial shot. For this reason, I am proposing that
Simtoo add cloud-based storage to its system. Cloud storage has the ability to
give the Dragonfly nearly limitless space, enabling uninhibited access for the
user as they no longer need to watch and see how much memory is left and how
much shooting they can do before cards need to be swapped.
Simtoo can take this concept further, by adding basic photo
editing options to their storage cloud. This way, a pilot can take a photo with
the drone, access it in the cloud, edit it, and then submit for publishing to
Facebook, Twitter, or any number of other social media sites.
The Simtoo Dragonfly is an intriguing UAV. It is a
drone whose tiny size is its biggest selling point, a point around which the
rest of the system’s design revolves; this design is the reason the designers
looked for the smallest possible device to provide onboard storage. It is also the
reason the UAV’s systems draw as little power as possible. I think the
Dragonfly has potential, but that it needs cloud storage to fully reach that
potential.
References
Simtoo (n.d.). Dragonfly.
Retrieved from http://www.simtoo.com/page.php?id=132#page1
on 4
October,
2018.
Custer, C. (2016). Dragonfly
drone wants to be a slightly cheaper alternative to DJI (review).
Estrada, M. (2017). The 5 highest capacity micro SD cards you can get right now on Amazon.
microsdxc/
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