A real test on the beach: when and from where the AI saw our dog
On 23 October 2026 we flew a DJI Mini 2 over El Palmar beach in Cádiz, Spain, with our dog Mosty running free on the sand. It is not a rescue: it is a test to see, photo by photo, when the AI finds him. The drone took a photo every 2 seconds for 17 minutes, each with its position.
What the drone sees
- 13:10 Take-off from the sand, with Mosty running free on the beach.
- 13:10 A spiral at about 15 m, camera tilted 45°, over 120 × 160 m of sand. In 9 minutes the AI flags only two things: a wave, which is a false alarm, and Mosty, once.
- 13:19 Straight up, to see the whole beach.
- 13:20 First sign from high up, at 92 m with the camera almost straight down: a possible dog with 0.30 confidence. Mosty is 57 pixels wide in a 4,000-pixel photo.
- 13:21 The drone descends over that spot and the AI keeps flagging him at 73, 53 and 31 m.
- 13:21 At 20 m, the height the app recommends, Mosty is easy to see.
- 13:23 Down to 9 m to make sure, and landing at 13:27.
What the camera saw at 92, 73, 31 and 20 m
The same dog, in 4,000-pixel-wide photos taken at different heights. Each crop shows the same 12 × 12 m of sand around Mosty.
That is why the app suggests flying at 20 to 25 m (65 to 80 ft): higher up you cover more ground, but the dog shrinks to a few pixels and the AI hesitates. From high up you get a hint; to be sure, you go down and look. And never above 120 m (400 ft) over the ground, the maximum in the EU open category: check the rules in your country.
How the app would have searched
In the test, the drone flew a low spiral with the camera tilted at 45° and then climbed. To look for a dog, the app suggests something else: the camera straight down at 25 m and parallel passes that cover the area without gaps. This simulation runs its planner over the same area to see when the camera would have passed over Mosty.
Simulation with the app's planner
- Time
- 5:12
- Height
- 25 m
- Passes
- 7
- Mosty
- In view: 1:12
An area of 2.1 ha, 7 passes 25 m apart at 5 m/s: about 6 minutes and one battery. The camera passes over Mosty's spot at 1:12.
Passing over him is not the same as seeing him: in the real test the AI flagged Mosty at 0.46 from 31 m and at 0.50 from 20 m. That is why the app flags every possible animal and you go and look.
What did not go well
- The AI also flagged a wave and, in several photos, the person walking with Mosty. That is why every flag is confirmed or discarded by hand.
- From high up the confidence was low: 0.30 at 92 m. It is a reason to go down and look, not a certainty.
What it looks like in the app
In the app, every possible animal is boxed in orange, with the time of the photo and two buttons: Confirm and Discard. In this test, the good flags came from the analysis on a computer, with the large model. The smaller model on the phone still makes more mistakes with these photos, and that is what we are improving now.
This is what it looks like when it gets it right, with a photo from another of our tests:
Test details
- Drone
- DJI Mini 2 with its normal camera (no thermal camera).
- When and where
- 23 October 2026, from 13:10 to 13:27, on El Palmar beach (Vejer de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain), in sunshine, with the beach almost empty.
- Photos
- One every 2 seconds, each with the position and height the drone records.
- Analysis
- The analysis station on a computer, with our own model and a large general one. A flag counts as a “possible dog” from 0.25 confidence.
- Map
- PNOA orthophoto © Instituto Geográfico Nacional (CC BY 4.0).
Guides for searching with a drone · What height to fly to find a dog · How to review drone footage
Email me when it is outApp Store and Google Play: coming soon.
Reviewed on October 23, 2026.
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