How to use Skydio Shadow: Subject Track and Follow

Shadow Subject Track and Follow is an advanced autonomy capability that enables the drone to automatically track a selected person or vehicle and, when enabled, follow the subject’s movement without continuous manual flight control. 

• Supports incident response, perimeter monitoring, and other operations where maintaining persistent visual coverage is critical

Shadow Track and Follow consists of two related behaviors:

• Shadow Track - The drone autonomously identifies and maintains visual lock on a selected subject while managing camera framing and orientation
• Shadow Follow - Appears as an option to enable while tracking. When enabled, the drone adjusts its position, speed, and heading to maintain relative distance and orientation to the moving subject 

Operational Guidelines

• The operator remains responsible for airspace awareness and safe operation at all times.
• Obstacle avoidance must be enabled to use Shadow Follow. Follow behavior depends on obstacle avoidance for safe maneuvering. If a potential obstacle is detected, the drone may temporarily stop following and hold position while maintaining visual tracking. 
  • If obstacle avoidance is disabled while flying with Follow, it will revert back to Shadow Track
• Shadow Follow requires a minimum altitude of 60 ft AGL. Below this altitude the drone continues to track, but does not reposition
• Mode selection (Track or Follow) settings persist
• Follow does not use Pathfinder data
• The system attempts predictive reacquisition for approximately 5 seconds when subjects move behind buildings, vegetation, or vehicles. Extended occlusions may result in tracking loss.
• Any manual adjustment (forward, back, lateral, or altitude) orbits the subject and resets the position that Follow will maintain. 

Shadow Follow Altitude and Distance Behavior

When Follow is enabled, the drone maintains a relative position to the subject based on where Follow was initiated. 

• The drone attempts to maintain the same AGL height from the moment Follow begins. If the Remote Pilot wants to follow from a higher or lower altitude, they can manually reposition the drone using Shift or the Spacebar, and Follow will continue from the new height. Manual repositioning (forward, back, lateral, or altitude) updates the relative viewing position that Follow maintains.
• There is no fixed standoff distance. Follow maintains the viewing distance the drone had at initiation.
  • The drone will not move farther from the subject than the viewing angle and distance established when Follow begins.
  • The drone will not move closer than an elevation angle of ~75°. If the subject moves toward the drone, the drone will hold position until the distance becomes unsafe or too close.

[note] Standoff Distance settings only apply to Custom Markers, not Shadow Follow. [/note]

How to use Shadow Track and Follow

Step 1 - Enter Remote Flight Deck

Step 2 - Locate the Shadow icon within the Action Bar and select it to enable tracking

• Optionally use the ‘U’ shortcut key to toggle Shadow ON or OFF

Track OFF	Track ON
Follow OFF	Follow ON

Step 3 - When Shadow is enabled, a detection box appears in the video feed as you mouse over people or vehicles available to track

Step 4 - Select the box to lock onto a subject and begin tracking

• Once tracking begins, the outlined box will turn into four corners
• If Distance to Centerpoint is enabled, the current distance automatically displays

Step 5 - Optionally switch into Follow mode

• Use the on-screen buttons or the ‘Y’ shortcut key to switch between Subject Track and Follow
• Track - the gimbal remains locked on the subject while the Remote Pilot flies manually
• Follow - the drone locks the gimbal and autonomously follows the subject 
   

Best Practices

Anticipate Obstructions

• Assess the subject’s likely path and identify buildings, vehicles, or other structures that may interfere with line-of-sight
• Adjust the drone’s position early to maintain an unobstructed view, which may require flying closer to the subject or repositioning laterally to avoid occlusion

Utilize Zoom Capabilities 

• If the subject is clearly visible in the camera feed without the operator straining to identify it, the tracking model will generally be able to detect and maintain the lock
• Excessive distance or reliance on extremely small visual targets may reduce tracking performance

Avoid Overhead Viewing Angles

• Subjects, particularly people, are more difficult for the system to identify or re-identify when viewed directly from above
• Maintaining an oblique viewing angle improves tracking continuity and reduces the likelihood of subject confusion in complex environments

Known Limitations

• Follow is not available if obstacle avoidance is OFF
• Tracking performance may degrade in low light environments without NightSense 
• Tracking performance may be lower when using thermal
• Shadow can reidentify a lost track in 3-5 seconds assuming the subject continues moving at a roughly constant velocity. Shadow may mistakenly jump tracks during this time if it sees a similar subject.
• Subject Tracking cannot operate concurrently with VPS-dependent modes or 3D Scan due to system resource load

Skydio Inc., A0617