Boat Mode?

[Topher]

Is there any official statement from GP that the Karma can by flown from a moving surface (boat mode)? One of the promotional videos shows it taking off from a Kayak, so the implication is "yes".

I flew my Solo off my boat many times with no problem until one day it had a compass/gps error (proven by telemetry logs I uploaded to the 3DRpilots sister site of this one). It did the classic lateral flyaway after refusing to shut off after landing, and on into the lake. 3DR refused to take responsibility due to my initializing the drone on a moving surface.

Since it is possible that the Karma (in the video) was initialized on land first and then flown from the kayak, I am a bit nervous about making any assumptions. Suffice to say that I will buy the drone (Karma, mavic, etc?) that allows for boat mode, since 75% of my flights were from my boat, as I primarily use the drone for photography, especially aerial panoramas and tinyplanet.

Any feedback would be welcome, additionally I am wondering if there are any drones with good cameras that support boat mode?

 

[PTCX]

I not heard of any multirotor having a specific "boat mode" feature.
When launching from a boat do it while the boat is stationary.If you do it while the boat is moving the quad can't properly establish a home point and it will take longer to acquire satellites,they need to be stationary while initializing.
Also if the boat is steel or has a lot of steel parts on it that too can cause problems with the compass which in turn can cause various flight anomalies including a flyaway.

 

[Topher]

It is looking promising that KKarma is actually able to do this:
Solved: Boat launch - GOPRO SUPPORT HUB

Arducopter 3.4 incorporates the ability to take off from a moving surface. Solo was based on arducopter before it stopped being upgraded, I believe that Solo got stuck at 3.3 and then downgraded to 3.2 when problems arose. Solo is dead now and will never get it unless you want to gamble with third party developers.

The fact that GP hired a lot of 3DR's software guys, implies that Karma may have its software roots in arducopter also, which is hopeful.

Given the promo video of the Karma taking off from a kayak, and the information above, I am really hoping this is real.

If this is really a thing, it is an enormous step forward and is truly something that GP should be bragging about as nobody else has this.