Yesterday’s launch of the DJI Matrice 30 enterprise drone was accompanied by the unveiling of the DJI Dock – a new autonomous docking and recharging station designed to fully automate flights with DJI M30 drones. It’s a great product with the potential to transform remote infrastructure inspection, site monitoring, and engineering supervision through unattended, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. But DJI could struggle to find a market for it, former high-profile employees of the company say.
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Aerorozvidka, a dedicated drone unit within the Ukrainian army, is leveraging Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system to hunt and attack the Russian forces “as they sleep.”
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DJI has just finished its latest “For Everyday Heroes” event, where it introduced the new M30 product line ecosystem: an enterprise drone that can fit into a backpack, a multi-drone fleet management software, and an autonomous docking and recharging station. But alongside these, DJI has also unveiled a new sensor, Zenmuse H20N, designed especially for its flagship enterprise drone, the DJI M300 RTK.
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DJI has unveiled FlightHub 2 drone fleet management cloud software that integrates perfectly with the company’s just-announced Matrice 30 enterprise drone. Offering several major improvements over the original DJI FlightHub, version 2 is meant to enable seamless synchronization and coordination between the pilots, backend teams, drones, payloads, and all the data they gather.
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There has never been much lacking in DJI’s wide range of UAV products – apart from a conspicuously absent drone-in-a-box devise, that is. This morning that hole was filled with the company’s introduction of the DJI Dock as an accompanying product to its newly unveiled Matrice 30 enterprise craft.
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The day is here: DJI’s March 21 enterprise event has come, and we now know if the rumors are true. Spoiler: They are. DJI announced the rumored Matrice 30 enterprise drone, sporting folding arms and a more compact and portable size.
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Industrial drone solutions provider American Robotics has reached an agreement to acquire Ardenna, a Virginia-based firm providing AI-powered analytics software for the rail industry. The acquisition would enable American Robotics to offer autonomous drone-in-a-box solutions to railways.
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Vantis, a state-wide network enabling beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights in North Dakota, has found a new partner to further its mission of becoming a hub of commercial UAS activity.
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A new video circulating online purports to show another way consumer drones are being repurposed to aid Ukraine’s defense against Russian troops – this one by dropping a grenade on a target with remarkable accuracy.
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On Monday, DJI will be announcing new products during an online event at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Here is how to watch it and what we believe DJI will announce.
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Join Yifei and Seth for this week’s weekly round-up of news from the drone industry. Each week they discuss the top stories and pick a drone video of the week.
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Drone giant DJI released a short film Saturday, just two days ahead of its March 21 product launch event, whose content seems to support speculation that the craft has been designed with first responders and public service operators in mind.
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The last few months have seen a spate of new consumer and prosumer drones being launched by industry-leading players such as DJI and Autel. However, the one question that has kept several enthusiasts across the European Union and the UK from loosening their purse strings is: “Where is the class identification label?” If you’ve also held off wondering the same, here’s some good news.
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Its recent electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) prototype crash notwithstanding, California-based Joby Aviation is pursuing its target of launching commercial air taxi services in 2024 with a single-minded focus. Today, the company announced the successful completion of the initial FAA systems and compliance reviews for aircraft certification.
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Canon is arguably one of the best camera manufacturers out there, but it’s not a brand you’d normally associate with drones. That might change soon, if a new patent application filed by the company is any indication.
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Utah-based security UAV specialist Teal Drones has been selected to develop a prototype craft in a final stage of the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 (SRR T2) Program, which aims to create a powerful but portable small craft for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
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French startup Dronisos has won much applause for lighting up the skies with its choreography of hundreds of drones in light shows, but now it’s gaining attention from defense groups eager to put the company’s command of mass UAV navigation to work in drone swarms flying security missions.
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Embraer’s urban air mobility (UAM) affiliate, Eve, has signed a pair of deals to prepare the rollout of electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in Miami, including planned air taxi shuttles between the city’s airport and main convention center.
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The Police Department in Oakland, California, is finally equipped with a trio of UAVs in its new drone unit, but public concerns, political opposition, earlier controversies, and an enduring budget crisis required 100% private funding before that program could get off the ground.
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With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entering week four, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called on DJI founder and CEO Frank Wang to “end any relationships” with the aggressor country. Insisting that Russian troops are using DJI’s products to navigate missiles to kill Ukrainian civilians, the minister has urged the Chinese tech giant to “block all DJI products” purchased and activated in Russia, Syria, and Lebanon.
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A pair of US drone companies is taking action to supply Ukraine forces with specialized UAVs to aid their defense against invading Russian troops, while the Biden administration has reportedly decided to provide Kyiv potent Switchblade aerial attack assets as part of an $800 million military assistance package.
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Don’t expect a trifle like the crash of one of its two electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi prototypes to slow Joby’s drive to obtain a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This week the company revealed it had begun the fourth of the five steps in that process, and expects to complete it by the end of the year.
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The DJI Mavic Air 2 Fly More Combo is currently available at $789, instead of its usual $988. This $199 discount on one of the best portable, folding drones DJI has ever made is being offered by select retailers for a limited time only.
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Drone maker DJI’s update-o-rama continued Wednesday with the release of (yet another) firmware upgrade – this time for the Mini 2 – and a new version of its DJI Terra uber-mapping solution. Those two bring the company’s software revisions to five this week alone.
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