What is the difference between FPV or LOS, angle or acro drones? How are they different?
2 Answers
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So FPV and LOS are ways to fly the drone, with FPV being First Person View and LOS being Line Of Sight.
In FPV, one generally has a fixed camera on the aircraft and controls the aircraft’s movements based on what they see on the screen/goggles. This is analogous to VR, however not exactly the same.
LOS, however, means watching the aircraft from a third-person perspective, for example how you would watch a bird fly.
Both of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages, however many people in the hobby find FPV more exciting (though not everyone).
Angle and Acro, on the other hand, are the flight modes.
In Angle, when the sticks return to zero deflection, the quad will self-level, so the entirety of its thrust is vectored down - there will be no acceleration in any given direction (part from vertically based on the throttle). In Angle mode, the drone is not able to tilt beyond a caretaking angle, so flipping, rolling, etc is not allowed.
However, in Acro, the drone has no angle limits so it can roll and even hang upside down with sufficient momentum. The drone will also maintain the same attitude once the sticks return to zero deflection, so needs to be manually leveled.
There is a combination of these two modes called Horizon, in which the drone behaves as if it is in Angle mode during normal flight, however it is still able to flip and roll.
answered Apr 15, 2020 at 10:59
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$\begingroup$ Excellent answer. To build on this, FPV drones require the hardware to collect and transmit visual data to the googles. Specifically a small camera and video transmitter of some kind. This typically adds a bit of weight. LOS specific quads tend to be extremely minimalistic and light weight, essentially just 4 motors a flight controller and radio receiver. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 13:02
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FPV stands for First Person View and refers to drones where there is an on-board camera giving a 'pilots eye' view.
LOS means Line Of Sight and refers to a drone being flown by the pilot looking at it, for which it needs to remain in sight for safe control.
Angle Mode drones are aircraft that remain level with no-stick input, and their pitch and roll are limited to a set angle to prevent flips or rolls. This makes them easier to fly.
Acro drones do not automatically self-level or limit their angle of orientation, which allows for acrobatic flight but requires more skill from the pilot to accurately control them.
