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DJI Mavic Air will have backward-facing obstacle avoidance sensors

Little by little, we are discovering more information about the all-new DJI Mavic Air drone. Today we learned from a source who has actually seen the new drone, that the foldable unmanned aerial vehicle will indeed have backward-facing obstacle-avoidance sensors. Of course, as with all rumors, there is no guarantee that this information will 100% correct, but it comes from a very credible source and we decided to share it with you.

Will the Mavic Air have 360-degree obstacle avoidance?

Does this mean that the all-new DJI Mavic Air will have 360-degree obstacle avoidance as we had wished for in our list for the Mavic Pro 2, probably not. But adding sensors at the rear of the drone will be a very welcome addition and will surely eliminate many sketchy situations where drones may get damaged.

Currently, the DJI Mavic Pro comes equipped with the very capable FlightAutonomy technology. This system consists of 7 components including 5 cameras (forward and downward dual vision sensors and the main camera), dual-band satellite positioning (GPS and GLONASS), 2 ultrasonic rangefinders, redundant sensors and a group of 24 powerful, specialized computing cores. The Mavic can sense obstacles 49 feet (15m) in front and help to avoid them.

According to the DJI:

“As the Mavic Pro flies, dual forward and downward vision sensors measure the distance between itself and obstacles by taking photos from all four cameras. It then uses the information to create a 3D map which tells it exactly where obstacles are.”

On the current Mavic Pro, the obstacle avoidance system is activated in every Intelligent Flight Mode including all ActiveTrack modes, TapFly, Terrain Follow and Return to Home mode. When you fly in the Sport mode the Forward Vision System is disabled.

We assume that the new DJI Mavic Air will keep the FlightAutonomy technology and all the obstacle avoidance sensors and cameras from the current Mavic Pro. However, the backward-facing dual vision sensors will be a new addition. We have not received information on any sideways-facing or upwards-facing sensors.

Furthermore, it could be that specifications or capabilities of the sensors and cameras or the FlightAutonomy software on the new DJI Mavic Air are improved over the previous model. Unfortunately, we do not have any additional information on this either.

Like you, we are counting down the days to DJI’s event in New York City and we will keep looking for more details and information on the Chinese drone manufacturer’s new UAV. We will keep you posted on our findings here on DroneDJ.

Btw – DJI announced the location of the event today.

Read more of our coverage on the DJI Mavic Air here:

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Avatar for Haye Kesteloo Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys and Electrek. Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo 


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