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近日，Skydio公布了进行远程无人机操控的Skydio Dock。
Recently, Skydio finally released its Skydio Dock for truly remote drone operations.
依稀记得，Skydio在两年半前首次揭开了其机巢的面纱，最初的原型是一个小型的金属盒子。
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，他们一直对其软件和硬件进行改进，以开发最终版本的机巢，让它看起来独具Skydio特色，完美匹配其无人机的设计美感。
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.
据说，机巢的功能是十分强大的。在你真正了解细节和幕后的过程之前，你无法真正理解让其运作到底需要耗费多大的努力。也就是说，它不只是一个装载和保护无人机的盒子。
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有两个版本的机巢让人惊艳。
So Skydio actually surprised us with 2 versions of the dock.
当然，我们有标准的机巢，完全装载无人机，它主要是户外用途，保护无人机免受各种因素的影响。不管是炎热还是寒冷，下雨还是刮风，该无人机能够放置其中，并始终处于充电状态，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.
更惊喜的是，尽管Dock Lite是一个小型的碳纤维三脚架，其上方安装了着陆区。它的功能和全尺寸的机巢是一样的，只是没有保护功能。
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government introduced legislation Monday that
那么，Dock Lite则是室内用的完美选择，其最显著的益处就是更实惠。
That makes the Dock Lite perfect for indoor use and comes with the obvious benefit of being more affordable.
为了更好地了解机巢的工作原理，前面有一个聚碳酸酯门，可以打开以允许手臂伸出。无人机位于该臂的末端，被抱在一个小的杯形着陆区，完美契合挂式电池。
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，门就会在其后面关闭，这样螺旋桨就不会让任何灰尘、污垢或碎屑进入机巢。
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.
当无人机起飞时，它会进行360度旋转，校准导航摄像头，然后悬停。
As the drone takes off, it does a 360 spin, that calibrates the navigation cameras and then comes to a hover.
从这里，它将开始其任务，可以通过Skydio的远程操作软件实时观看。因此，你可以准确地看到它每时每刻都在做什么，从它的遥测到它正在捕获的图像。
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.
不过，这不是必需的，因为无人机是完全自主的。因此，在你设定了这个任务之后，它就会知道什么时候需要起飞，以及它需要做什么。一旦完成飞行计划，它将降落并上传该数据，供您与您的团队一起分析。
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.
说到着陆，这也许是我最喜欢的部分，看到手臂伸出机巢，无人机自行降落，然后最终降落在那个小着陆杯上。
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.
这一设计元素十分机智，因为它让无人机每次都能够完美连接充电针脚，这样它就能为下次任务做准备。
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.
说到充电，使用机巢时，您必须确保使用的是底部带有充电引脚的新电池。
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.
着陆区有另一组引脚，用于连接并为电池供电。
The landing area has another set of pins that make a connection and supply power to the battery.
在与Skydio的团队交谈时，他们希望用尽可能少的活动部件来简化充电，这样故障点就很少。
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.
一些机巢站在外壳内具有非常复杂的机制，例如在无人机上换电池，但在Skydio机巢的情况下，您可以同时运行多个机巢。
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.
现在，为了管理多架无人机，如果您处于需要的情况下，Skydio的远程操作软件让您能够轻松查看您的机队、每架无人机和机巢的状态。
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.
总的来说，手动控制它们中的每一个是必要的。这意味着您甚至可以拥有这些机巢之一，并能够使用远程操作，因为直接从您的网络浏览器，您可以完全控制无人机。
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.
让我给你一个场景。您是建筑工地的项目经理，您的客户要求您确认已交付，例如铁梁。
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.
与其走遍工作现场，你可以在任何有互联网连接的地方，拿起你的笔记本电脑，然后手动控制那架无人机，飞到你需要去的地方。
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.
您可以抓取一张照片，然后在您登陆后将其上传到云端。你可以去存下那张照片，然后把它发给你的客户。请记住，这可以从任何地方完成。同样，你可以在你家、办公室或全国各地完成这个任务。
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，这些机巢任务也可以在室内完成。因此，我们执行的远程行动任务是在大约20英里外的Skydio总部的机巢仓库内进行的。
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.
你基本上只是使用键盘和鼠标，就像你在玩视频游戏来操纵无人机一样。
You basically just use your keyboard and mouse like you’re playing a video game to maneuver the drone around.
这是一种非常流畅和无压力的体验，因为Skydio的自主性确保无人机即使在狭窄的空间内也不会坠毁。
It’s a really fluid and stress-free experience, as Skydio’s autonomy ensures the drone doesn’t crash, even in tight spaces.
这使得飞行体验感觉非常独特，但同样独特的是那些室内自动飞行，即无人机可以在预先计划的飞行任务中在内部飞行，并在适应环境的同时在现场周围捕获不同的图像。
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，仓库或建筑工地的内部在不断变化，但Skydio足够智能，可以自己做出决定并改变其飞行路径以确保安全操作。
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.
对于这些可重复的飞行，Skydio使用其视觉定位系统构建地图，记录特定地标，以使未来的任务更容易。
For these repeatable flights, Skydio uses its visual positioning system to build a map that notes specific landmarks to make future missions easier.
然后将此地图上传到您的云盘中，并可以与可能执行相同任务的其他无人机共享。
This map is then uploaded to your cloud and can be shared with other drones that might be running the same mission.
这为您的Skydio提供了“长期记忆”，以提供更准确的飞行，差异低至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.
这比视觉惯性里程计（VIO）精确得多，后者可能会在行进距离的1-5%之间漂移，当无人机的机载导航摄像头使用本地特征来预估运动的时候。
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.
为了展示Skydio的无人机在两次飞行之间的准确性，我想分享两个具体的例子。
To demonstrate just how accurate Skydio’s drones are between flights, there are two specific examples that I want to share.
第一个是这个小型建筑项目的户外飞行。无人机以30分钟的间隔运行相同的可重复任务，能够自主地从码头部署，捕获飞行路径上被告知的所有图像，然后降落充电。
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.
在飞行之间拍摄的每张图像都是从同一地点拍摄的，几乎没有偏差，这也适用于视频，允许您在项目过程中创建一些非常酷的延时摄影。
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.
下一个例子是在这个狭窄的小角落里进行的室内飞行。就像外部任务一样，在24小时内每30分钟拍摄一次照片，无人机能够在每次飞行之间保持相似的位置。
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.
这种精度水平最终将使无人机在室内和室外的任何飞行中都更安全，也会给你带来更好的结果。
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.
您的照片和视频每次都相同，并且在多次飞行过程中不会偏离该地点。
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和机巢来计划一项自主任务，每小时拍摄一张炼油厂周围压力表的照片。
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.
由于视觉定位系统的精确性，您可以确保压力表将被正确拍摄，而不是说获得一张偏离其标记5 英尺的照片并丢失该小时的信息。
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.
所以总的来说，我认为Skydio的机巢将在建筑工地、炼油厂、仓库内部以及任何可以使用持续监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过机巢带来提出，而不是不能使用机巢的地方。
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.
在恶劣的天气和不支持GPS的环境中，Skydio的无人机将能够工作并安全地在地形中导航。
Through harsh weather and GPS-denied environments, Skydio’s drone will be able to work and safely navigate the terrain.