Staaker Preview – The Norwegian Auto-Follow Drone

There is a new drone coming to the market for drones that follow you, The Staaker.

The Staaker is, like the AirDog, a pure auto-follow drone, designed for sports and extreme sports.

The Staaker is weatherproof, meaning you can fly it in rain or snow. The remote is waterproof, but the drone itself is not.

The drone is also very fast, flying at 80 kph  or 50 mph.

The Staaker is foldable, and fits nicely into a backpack. It weights only  1.6 kg.

There will be no assembly required, and they promise that you can have it up and shooting video in 30 seconds.

5 Flight Modes

It will have 5 flight modes that you can use while shooting video:

Follow: Where Staaker will follow you from behind. You can adjust the height and the distance from the Staakers tracker.

Circle: Where Staaker will circle around you shooting video.

Compass: Staaker will follow you from a direction that you set, keeping the backgorund fixed.

Hover: The position of the drone will be fixed, but the camera will turn and follow you. Ideal for jumps and tricks.

Scenery: Manual control of the Staaker using the tracker as control.

Works with GoPro

The drone will be compatible with GoPro Hero 3, 3+, 4 and 5 Black.

The fact that it is compatible with GoPro Hero 5 is a big plus, as not many drones have that capability. In fact the only drone I can think of that is compatible with GoPro Hero 5 is the GoPro Karma.

The camera will be stabilized by a 3-axis gimbal.

Tracker Control

The transmission range is 500 m and weighs only 85 grams.

You can use it to completely control the drone in the Scenery mode, or use it to adjust height, angle and distance in other modes.

When you are running low on battery, the tracker will alert you with sounds.

The controller is waterproof, making it ideal for watersports like surfing and waterskiing.

 

We asked Halvor Langhoff from the team behind Staaker a couple of questions:
Can the Staaker automatically follow uphill or downhill in altitude? (Will it follow a downhill skiier down in altitude, and will it follow an uphill rider up in altitude)

Yes, it follows you uphill. The tracker senses your altitude at all times and the drone adjust according to your change automatically.

Can you adjust altitude with the tracker?

Yes, the two buttons on front (arrow up/arrow down).

Why did you choose to create an auto-follow drone? Does it have anything to do with Norways snow sport possibilities and nature?

Yes, you are correct. The idea came from one of the founders was out backcountry skiing in Norway and the gopro footage didnt show how good the trip actually was. So he came up with the idea to make a drone that would be easy to bring along and did everything for you.

Staaker will be produced in Scandinavia, to ensue complete quality control.

It will be released 15th of may 2017, but you can preorder it here.