DJI Enhances Enterprise Drones And Fleet Management Software

DJI has announced the launch of new hardware and software tools to give professional UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operators improved control, safety, and security for high-stakes missions. The new Matrice 200 Series V2 drones have been redesigned with better reliability, safety, and security features, while the FlightHub drone operations management platform gives organizations more implementation control and data security assurances. Combined, these improvements enable commercial organizations to scale and manage their drone programs while laying the technical foundations for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and nighttime operations.

“From routine mapping missions to sensitive industrial inspections, organizations around the world rely on DJI to provide more robust, secure and scalable solutions,” said Jan Gasparic, Director of Strategic Partnerships at DJI. “As leading organizations have increased their drone fleets into the hundreds and thousands, they have asked for better ways to centrally manage drone operations and are using drones for applications that demand safer and more reliable drone technology. Our updated Matrice 200 Series drones are now better equipped for complex life-saving missions, flights over sensitive locations, and flights at night, while enhancements to DJI FlightHub give organizations more control over their drone fleets and the data they generate.”

The Matrice 200 Series V2 brings new and improved features to DJI’s leading drone for commercial and industrial tasks. The second-generation model retains its rugged all-weather design, simple setup and easy configuration, while upgrading key systems to provide safer, more reliable, and more secure operation. From construction and infrastructure inspection to public safety and search and rescue, the Matrice 200 Series V2 provides a versatile platform for organizations ready to transform their daily operations with drone technology. Improvements to the Matrice 200 Series V2 include:

• Reliable Transmission – Equipped with OcuSync 2.0, the drones now support automatic dual frequency band switching between 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz for up to 8 km maximum transmission range, delivering reliable, high-resolution, low-latency digital video transmission back to the pilot.
• Data Security – All data transmitted through OcuSync 2.0 is encrypted using the leading AES-256 standard, ensuring critical mission information is protected and can only be accessed by authorized parties.
• Flight Safety – Designed with U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Night Waiver standards in mind, anti-collision beacons have been added on the top and bottom of the drone to improve flight safety during low-light conditions and at night. The drone is also equipped with DJI’s AirSense system using an ADS-B receiver to provide drone pilots with awareness of approaching air traffic that may pose a collision risk.
• Flight Performance – Pilots using multiple drone payloads during their operations can now calibrate the drone’s new center of gravity with ease from the DJI Pilot app for better flight performance.
• Data Accuracy – A new TimeSync system continuously aligns the flight controller, cameras, GPS module and RTK module, as well as any third-party payloads or onboard accessories, fixing the position data to the center of the image frame to achieve improved data accuracy.

Combined, these improvements lay the technical foundations for more advanced drone operations. This begins with including night flight-enabling anti-collision beacons to DJI’s newest enterprise drones, including the Mavic 2 Enterprise and the Matrice 200 Series V2. Combining the anti-collision beacon and improved transmission range with its pre-existing DJI AirSense ADS-B receiver system for traditional aircraft detection and FlightAutonomy obstacle sensing system, the Matrice 200 Series V2 is ready to support beyond visual line of sight operations.

“DJI is leading the industry in incorporating new safety features that support the growth of nighttime and BVLOS flights in the United States and around the world,” said Brendan Schulman, Vice President of Policy & Legal Affairs at DJI. “These innovations will open countless opportunities for organizations and the general public to benefit from the life-saving uses of drone technology, and DJI is proud to help pave the way for regulators to create clear pathways for operators to receive approval to conduct advanced drone operations.”

DJI FlightHub software enables organizations to efficiently manage all aspects of their commercial drone operations from a single platform. As a web-based service, FlightHub Basic and Advanced have provided the capability to oversee live operations, manage flight data, manage fleets and pilots, and effectively plan operations. The new FlightHub Enterprise has additional features that give commercial operators more control over their implementations and data security:

• Private Cloud Hosting – Organizations can now choose to host FlightHub Enterprise within their private cloud or on-premise IT infrastructure, utilizing their existing organizational resources and security protocols, and enabling the capability to build streamlined workflows for their drone fleets.
• Dedicated DJI Pilot app – Exclusively compatible with FlightHub Enterprise, the new DJI Pilot PE app is a customized version of DJI’s flight control app designed for users with high data security requirements. By default, DJI Pilot PE will not transmit any data to public networks and will only connect directly to an organization’s FlightHub Enterprise platform hosted on their private IT infrastructure.
• Firmware Management – Centrally manage and deploy drone firmware updates, allowing organizations to certify and update drone fleets at their own pace, ensuring security compliance and avoiding unforeseen delays during critical missions.
• Mission Planning – Schedule and oversee drone operations with the ability to send automated waypoint or mapping missions to individual pilots.
• Device Maintenance – Track equipment usage, including aircraft and battery usage time, to ensure your drone equipment is functioning properly and aircraft maintenance is performed on schedule.

Together, these updates make FlightHub Enterprise valuable to a wide range of commercial and industrial customers using drone technology for increasingly sensitive missions, including large-scale disaster response operations, public safety operations that require a real-time view of data by a central command for quick decision making, and relaying information to offsite engineers during inspections in the energy and telecommunications industries.

“Drones are an important tool for our customers because they deliver information that transforms how they make decisions, help keep people safe, and ensure business assets are at peak performance,” said Brandon Torres Declet, CEO and Co-Founder of Measure, the leader in aerial intelligence solutions. “Our customers want the process of adopting drone technology to be simple, safe, and secure. By integrating FlightHub Enterprise into Measure’s services and our all-in-one drone software platform Ground Control, our customers now will have unprecedented control and insight at their fingertips.”