FPV Flying Claw Machine Drone Picking up Stuffed Animals

All kinds of fads come and go – when was the last time your kid asked for a fidget spinner? – but it looks like drones may be sticking around for a while. We see them all the time at events from races to carnivals, buzzing around gathering footage of the goings on far below. With companies like Amazon and UPS looking for ways to use drones to deliver packages within minutes of order being placed, and new models coming out that are lighter, faster and more nimble than ever, the faint hum of rotors is likely to be a part of the background noise of our lives for the foreseeable future.

However, drones – or multi-rotor aircraft, to be technically correct – are not all business. If you’ve spent any time on the sticks flying one, you know they can be pretty fun, especially if you add the First Person Viewpoint, or FPV, option. For those who don’t know, FPV means you wear a headset that shows you in real time what the drone’s camera is seeing, so you’re sort of immersed in the experience like a pilot who’s onboard the craft itself. Not only does this give you a more intense experience, once you get a feel for it, it seems to make it easier to fly your drone.

Add in a claw attachment like those diabolical machines you find in arcades and the entrance to Wal-Mart, and you have the makings of an afternoon of fun, as long as your batteries hold up. These guys have piled up a bunch of claw machine-appropriate toys and put their pilot to work trying to grab them from the pile and drop them off in the waiting toy box. If you want to see how they do, you have to hit that play button below.

Have you flown a drone using the FPV headset? What’s the difference in that experience vs flying by line of sight? How many prizes do you think you could get from the pile of toys?