Haye Kesteloo

Climate change activists are planning to shut down Heathrow Airport in London with drones, aiming to create chaos for more than a million travelers.

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The new DJI Mavic Mini will dominate the consumer drone market by weighing less than 250 grams.

Yes, less is more. And here’s why.

We’ve already seen the leaked spec sheet of the new DJI Mavic Mini indicating that the drone will weigh only 245 grams. But there are other indications that this drone will indeed weigh less than the 250-gram weight limit registration requirement set by the FAA. And this one comes straight from DJI themselves. Furthermore, I will explain why 250 is the magic number, and why it will lead to DJI dominating the consumer drone market (not that they don’t already) when they launch the DJI Mavic Mini later this year.

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The news just doesn’t seem to stop when it comes to the new DJI Mavic Mini. First, we see the photos, then we learn about the price, then the specs of the DJI Mavic Mini leak and now we get to see the first video of the seemingly soon to be released DJI Mavic Mini. Check it out.

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Today, DJI launches the DJI Osmo Mobile 3, or as we like to call it, the “ultimate Instagram gimbal for your iPhone!”

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RoboMaster 2019 competition showcases the future of robotics. 32 teams compete on the battlefield with T-DT Northeastern University taking home the Grand Prize. RoboMaster, an annual robotics competition for aspiring young engineers and university students, concluded its 2019 competition in Bao’an Stadium in Shenzhen, China. The winning team from T-DT Northeastern University took home the gold trophy along with RMB 500,000 ($USD 70,841) as the grand prize. Close to 200 teams consisting of 10,000 young engineers from around the world signed up for the 2019 RoboMaster competition season, with 32 teams battling it out in the final tournament.

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The Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in Bismarck, N.D. announced today that the agency has received a four-year waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) over people.

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So just this morning, we learned from our old friend that DJI might, after all, be introducing a new drone this year. Take a look at these photos that show some sort of a DJI Mavic Mini. Could this be the Spark 2 that was supposed to be introduced before the summer or is this a DJI Mavic Air successor? Let’s take a closer look.

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A Louisiana woman shot several times at a small airplane, mistaking it for a drone. “He’s coming back to taunt us,” she can be heard saying in a video of the incident. The manned aircraft was spraying for mosquitos as it flew over her property. The police arrested the intoxicated woman and booked her into jail.

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Today, DJI announced that they will ‘Transform Your World,’ on August 13th at 9 am EST. The Chinese drone maker is getting ready to launch yet another, probably non-flying, product. Even though we have yet to see an actual drone from DJI this year, that hasn’t stopped the world’s largest UAS maker from launching one new product after another. In short succession, we have seen the DJI Osmo Pocket (Nov ’18), the DJI Osmo Action, the DJI Robomaster S1, the DJI Ronin-SC, and the DJI FPV HD System. Furthermore, we have seen FCC and other filings showing a new DJI camera and the Osmo Mobile 3. This morning we got an email (there were also announcements on Facebook and Twitter) in which they urge us to mark our calendars for Tuesday, August 13th, because at 9 am EST, DJI will showcase their latest product.

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When you think about Amazon and drones, you would typically think about the e-tailer’s ambitions to use unmanned aircraft to make deliveries to customers around the country. However, not all drones from Amazon fly. Meet the Amazon Scout, the six-wheeled, ground-based delivery robot that is showing up at a small number of homes in Irvine, California.

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If you’re an FPV drone racer and are considering the new DJI FPV system, check out this video on YouTube from Heart of America FPV. In the 10-minute video, he explains the benefits of DJI’s new system and some of the issues you might run into when using it for indoor FPV drone racing. One of the benefits he’s really excited about is not having to deal with multipath video interference anymore.

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Yes, you read that correctly. The latest news is that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 production is rumored to restart. The iconic quadcopter that is so popular among enthusiasts and professional or commercial drone pilots is expected to become available again mid-October. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 will only be back for a short few months until an upgraded version of the DJI Mavic 2 will come out late January 2020, which we now believe will be called the DJI Mavic 2 Pro+ and DJI Mavic 2 Zoom+.

Update: According to the latest rumors the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 production is likely to restart as early as September. Furthermore, DJI also mentions the name DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0+ on their EU Declaration of Conformity website. Might we see a slightly improved version of the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 when it makes its temporary return? We will find out soon. This article is an updated version of the article that was originally posted on July 10th, 2019.

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New information hints at a possible launch of a new DJI Mavic 2 Pro+ and DJI Mavic 2 Zoom+ in 2020. A Norwegian reader of DroneDJ pointed out some interesting facts on DJI’s own website that seem to indicate the introduction of new versions of DJI’s popular foldable drone.

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The makers of the amazing R1 drone are getting ready for the launch of their successor drone. Today, Skydio shared with us the first footage from the Skydio 2. We’re expecting this new drone to be smaller, lighter, less expensive, and better than the original Skydio R1. The video shows us three short clips. The first one is some FPV-style action footage of the drone following a motorcyclist riding through a forest. The second part is a more revealing cinematic shot of a man running into the ocean. The last shot is of a mountain biker, but this time the drone flies in front of the subject, keeping her in the frame, while avoiding trees and bushes. The first and last sequence especially seem to show off the incredible obstacle-avoidance Skydio is getting ready to bring to market with their Skydio 2 drone that will be launched later this year. We don’t know if Skydio 2 will be the official name of the new autonomously flying unmanned aircraft. Stay tuned.

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New research from non-profit group DRONERESPONDERS that was presented at the 2019 UAS DRONES Disaster Conference in Los Angeles, shows that the fast-growing Public Safety Drone Programs face new challenges. Analyst Greg Crutsinger, Ph.D., presented insights as to how first responders and their agencies are using UAS for public safety.

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As part of the UAS Integration Pilot Program, the University of Alaska completed the first-ever ‘Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight’ drone flight without a visual observer to inspect a four-mile stretch of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The BVLOS drone flight was made possible with Iris Automation’s onboard detect and avoid system – called Casia.

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It was only a few days ago when we reported on the FCC filing that disclosed the DJI OSMO Mobile 3. Now, thanks to our old friend, we get to see the DJI OSMO Mobile 3 Quick Start Guide. It explains all the buttons and connections on the new foldable gimbal from DJI. It has been a busy year for the Chinese drone maker so far, although we still haven’t seen any new drones…

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After the second crash involving Silicon Valley startup Matternet drones, the Swiss Post has decided to halt their drone delivery service indefinitely. The failure of an emergency parachute to bring the aircraft safely to the ground raises questions about the safety of delivery drones in urban areas.

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If you are like us and just got very excited about the new DJI Digital FPV Transmission System, you are probably now considering to give drone racing or FPV drone flying a try. But, there’s one problem. Where is the DJI FPV Racing Drone?!?!?

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