The DJI M30 drone can fly in heavy rain and has its own robot dock

Even DJI’s most industrial-grade drones don’t want to fly most drones in heavy rains. To date, DJI’s state-of-the-art technology has been the M300 RTK. This is a drone that has been flooded with heavy water in a marketing video, but the fine print (PDF) states that snow and heavy rain are not suitable for flying. However, DJI’s reputation for weatherability and reliability has improved. The new DJI M30 Enterprise announced today is capable of handling heavy rains, strong winds and high altitudes, even in -20 ° C to 50 ° C ice and snow conditions. According to the company.

Image: DJI

The M30 is more portable than any other industrial drone, small enough to fit in a large backpack or small rolling case, with a self-locking arm that snaps into place and can be folded at the push of a button instead. I can do it. Like the previous Matrice model, each needs to be screwed in and loosened. The 8.2-pound drone still has a tubular arm common to industrial UAVs, but the design is very close to the Mavic, helping DJI dominate the foldable drone category.

Image: DJI

A flight time of up to 41 minutes means that the M30 doesn’t have the durability of DJI’s longest-lasting drone, but DJI is taking advantage of its size in another way. This finally reveals a unique robot drone inbox solution. A fully autonomous mission, small enough to work behind a pickup truck.

The DJI Dock has its own weather station, surveillance cameras, antennas, and 25 minutes of automatic fast battery charging to support drone missions up to 7 km away, but pay attention to the details.

The DJI Dock must be used in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Its advanced features are not yet available in jurisdictions where human pilots need to stay in the drone’s line of sight or have a controller to maintain physical control of the drone.

One of those “jurisdiction” is the United States, but the FAA has taken a small step towards advancing automated drone inbox missions on a case-by-case or company-by-company basis. Most notably, American Robotics turned green in January last year for some people with minimal human involvement.

The Dock requires its own power supply and internet access, but according to DJI, it has a built-in battery for power failure and can support 4G dongles.

Image: DJI

When it comes to cameras, the M30 actually has two models, the M30 and the M30T. Let me explain to DJI:

The M30 model has a 48-megapixel 1/2-inch CMOS sensor zoom camera and 5x to 16x optical zoom and 200x digital zoom, a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, 8k photo 4K / 30 fps video resolution, and a laser range. The finder is integrated. This allows you to get accurate coordinates for objects up to 1,200 meters apart. The M30T is equipped with an additional 640x512px radiant heat camera.

There is also an obstacle avoidance sensor in 6 directions, 3 Propeller emergency landing function The M300RTK will also appear here.

The M30 starts at $ 10,000, the same as the M300 RTK, and both the M30 and $ 14,000 come with a completely redesigned RC Plus controller with a larger 7-inch screen (from 5.5 inches) for heavy rain use and IP54 protection. doing. Holds a replaceable external battery. Includes 2 drone batteries and 1 case. There is also a new DJI FlightHub 2 flight management software package for DJI’s enterprise drones and the Zenmuse H20N “Starlight Grade Hybrid Night Vision Sensor” that can be added to the old M300 RTK.

Image: DJI

If you are interested in drone inbox: “DJI Dock is currently being tested by selected users and will be available for purchase in the fourth quarter of 2022,” the press release said.

Update, 11:07 AM ET: Added price.