Many of us associate DJI with their dominance in the photo and video drone market; however, there is a whole world of enterprise solutions that you might know about. These are innovations that might even show up in the next drone you buy.
Recently, I had to spend a few days to attend DJI Airworks in Las Vegas. The enterprise world of drone technology is still fairly new, and AirWorks was founded a few years ago to showcase new technology being developed in space by more than just DJI. In a similar way to the way the robotics and RC communities advanced drone technology in its infancy, the corporate world begins with consumer drones and controls. adapt them to completely different use cases than intended. I will write more about their impact and usage in surveying, emergency response, industry etc in an upcoming article, so keep an eye on that if you are interested.
The need for better solutions has fueled rapid growth in DJI’s enterprise sector, and it has reached a place where some of those technologies can also provide applications for everyday consumers. .
A parachute for your Drone
Anytime you put your drone in the air, there’s a risk of something happening. As drones get more and more expensive, fortunately, their sensor arrays have become much more developed to avoid crashing. But if you’re like me, I’ve put my drone through some completely wild conditions.
When I took this photo in Iceland, I couldn’t land my drone because of the force of the wind. The solution was to run to a nearby building and let the drone plunge into the snow as it fell out of the air. It wasn’t a solution I was happy with, but everything worked out on its own and in the end the drone worked perfectly fine and most importantly, I was able to restore those amazing images .
In DJI Airworks I have to consider a parachute for your drone due FlyFire in collaboration with DJI. They already have solutions for enterprise-grade drones and more importantly, for those of you reading, consumer drones like the Mavic 2, Mavic 3, and hopefully a future broadcast series. Created to automatically detect when a drone spirals out of control or descends at a speed not possible in normal flight, it deploys a parachute to avoid potential threats. propeller and significantly slow down the drone from catastrophic impact. Although it’s replaceable in case you’ve also implemented it.
While it won’t save you from crashing into a tree, it will most likely keep your drone from being destroyed on impact. More importantly, it can prevent hurting someone in case you are flying in an area with a lot of people, such as the beach. Despite the altitude restrictions and oftentimes no flying, there are places out there that can improve the safety of those around you.
It can also improve your chances of recovering your drone in case your battery dies mid-flight, which happened to a few of my friends. The device is easy to attach and detach, which means you don’t always have to worry about flying it as it will have some effect on your battery life. Therefore, you can pick and choose how important a flight can be based on the conditions you’re setting.
DJI Dock
I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at the DJI Dock, and while it’s still in its early stages of development, its capabilities are fascinating. Much of what it does currently is for enterprise-grade integration. The dock includes heating equipment, air conditioning equipment, internet, wind data and more.
The primary purpose is to be used in remote locations where drone surveying and deployment can be very useful. For example, a locomotive company discovered a heavy object on its railroad tracks and had to suspend operations. Deploying DJI Docks on a critical route allows them to find where the object is, without any human interaction, quickly and safely, while saving time and hours. employee work. Trails through mountain passes that can take hours for someone to come and get a drone up in the air can take a lot of time with the right circumstances to figure out exactly what happened on the track.
In today’s integration, it’s very much geared towards the enterprise sector, but as I said before, there are technologies here that can make their way into the consumer side on a smaller scale. Imagine having a small pier you can place in a spot where you want to take pictures and fly your drone while the sun rises and sets in the distance. You can charge, protect and be ready to use for a period of time without having to constantly go to that location to deploy.
Similar to trail cams for wildlife photographers, this could be useful for someone who works in the film industry or even someone like me who wants to hike to a location and capture it for once a week. Whenever I have to work less for great results, I keep going! It should be noted that right now, this won’t be feasible at the current cost and scale, but I can easily see it being further developed and tweaked in the future.
Inference
Part of the technology that has evolved from enterprise to consumer solutions is Ronin 4D. They adapted the LIDAR technology from their business drones to help with precise focusing on the Ronin 4D. Innovation is always important, and when the whole market exists for things that often cost more to develop for audiences with much larger budgets, the reality is that those technologies are most likely in our hands. as soon as all their problems are solved is interesting. This is exactly how the car industry works, with luxury features being sold on very expensive cars and eventually trickling down to more affordable markets.
Most importantly, many of these developments are being used to save lives, improve safety, and provide new avenues for industries that have gone without innovation for years. So it’s like a win for everyone around and I’m excited for the future of drones.
