DJI Introduces Next-Generation Enterprise Drone Systems

The new DJI Matrice 30 integrates with a new autonomous takeoff, landing and charging station as well as DJI Enterprise’s fleet management software By Mike Ball / 22 Mar 2022
DJI M30 drone
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DJI has launched a new set of enterprise UAS (unmanned aerial system) solutions that includes fully remote fleet management and an autonomous docking and recharging station. The new products are designed for enterprise drone users such as public safety agencies, infrastructure inspectors and energy operators.

The new DJI Matrice 30 is DJI Enterprise’s flagship drone that fits in a backpack. It integrates multiple high-performance sensors into one single camera payload, features a redesigned remote control and runs on upgraded Pilot 2 software, which significantly improves the flight experience. The M30 model offers much more power, endurance and capability for rugged professional uses, while its size makes it ideal for easy transportation and fast setup.

The drone integrates smoothly with the new DJI FlightHub 2 fleet management cloud-based software and the DJI Dock for collaboration with remote and unattended operations, bringing efficiency innovation to various industries.

The M30 series comes in two versions, the M30 and the M30T. The M30 model integrates a 48 megapixel 1/2” CMOS sensor zoom camera with 5×~16× optical and 200× digital zoom, a 12 megapixel wide-angle camera, 8k photo 4K/30 fps video resolution, and a laser rangefinder which can give the precise coordinates of objects up to 1,200 meters away. The M30T features an additional 640×512 px radiometric thermal camera.

With IP55 ingress protection, the M30 is designed to deliver high performance in harsh environments, in heavy rains, high winds, high altitudes, and even in icy and snowy conditions and extreme temperatures from -20° C to 50° C.

The DJI M30 also offers an improved first-person view pilot camera for low light conditions, built-in redundancies and backup systems, three-propeller emergency landing, a Health Management System, and six-way obstacle avoidance sensors enabling the pilot to focus on the mission. Its four-antenna OcuSync 3 Enterprise transmission ensures a strong redundancy, and it supports LTE link backup, in the face of complex terrain and working conditions.

The M30 adopts a foldable integrated lightweight design (3.7 kg take-off weight) that is easy to unfold, store and carry anywhere. Its new self-heating TB30 battery design can support at least 400 charge cycles and allows a 41-minute flight time, and the smart BS30 charging case allows quick battery charging from 20% to 90% in 30 minutes. The M30 also has a new self-locking system and can be folded by pressing a button.

The M30 offers best-in-class data security protocols built on DJI’s security-first Matrice 300 V3 firmware, and offline updates enable future firmware updates to be completed entirely offline. Firmware packages can be downloaded from the DJI official website and saved to an external storage device such a microSD card, before being uploaded into the M30 and updated with DJI Pilot.

Local Data Mode acts like “airplane mode” on a phone by completely disconnecting the DJI M30 from the internet, ensuring all data stays only in the drone. SD card AES encryption protects all the photos, videos, and flight logs that get stored on the microSD card by a security code and AES encryption.

The new DJI RC Plus remote controller features a 7-inch-wide high-definition screen enabling pilots to see more visual information thanks to improved brightness. As the DJI RC Plus is IP54 certified, similar to the M30 drone, it can be used in heavy rain.

The DJI RC Plus has six physical buttons below the control sticks next to the screen. They make piloting much easier, giving control of mission-critical functions, like switching between wide angle, zoom, infrared, and FPV views, without having to take hands away from the control sticks.

The RC has 6 hours of screen-on time. It has an internal battery and a swappable external battery, preventing the interruption of a mission. The DJI RC Plus offers ports for microSD card, USB, HDMI, USB type C and 4G connectivity (where offered), for customers needing transmission redundancy.

The DJI FlightHub 2 is DJI Enterprise’s fleet management software. It benefits from major improvements from its first version, synchronizing and coordinating between ground teams at work, drones, payloads, pilots and all the data they gather. The DJI FlightHub 2 is now entirely cloud-based, enabling flight mission management and operational viewing not only from the pilot’s RC, but from any device with a web browser, such as computers, tablets, and even mobile devices. Everyone involved in a drone operation, from ground teams to nearby supervisors to managers in their offices, can log into the same mission and see the data gathered by the drones and the pilots.

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The DJI FlightHub 2 supports a range of mapping features that enable users to respond quickly to developing situations:

One-Tap Panorama Sync creates a 360° overview and uploads to the cloud with a single tap. Shared panoramas, and the coordinates they were captured from, are placed on your mission’s 2.5D Base Map, granting all team members quick aerial awareness.
Cloud Mapping lets users highlight an area of interest, enabling the DJI M30 to automatically map the area in 2D, offering great perspectives during emergency response planning situations. DJI FlightHub 2 will turn these images into a map, which will overlay on the user’s map service provider. Once a map is captured, it can become the base to build a mission plan around.
Live Annotations are points, lines, or polygons that users can draw on the map. Thanks to the laser rangefinder of the DJI M30, in a search and rescue mission, a pilot can pinpoint the coordinates of a missing person. These coordinates will automatically sync through the DJI FlightHub 2 mission interface allowing the command center and the team on the ground to have live updates of coordinates and to simultaneously generate rescue routes. All these maps, models and inspection data can be uploaded to the cloud, supported by AWS, and accessed and managed remotely.

The DJI Dock is an autonomous takeoff, landing and charging station allowing fully automatic, programmed flights with the DJI M30 Series (Dock Version). It widens the horizon for automated missions that can be monitored and supervised remotely. After setup, the fully charged M30 drone can take off to the skies from the DJI Dock through FlightHub 2 programmed automatic missions anywhere within a 7 km radius.

Once the drone lands after its mission, it will recharge automatically. Thanks to the fast charging and battery cooling system, the drone can take off again only 25 minutes after it landed.

The modular durable design allows continuous operations day and night, no matter the weather. The Dock is rated at IP55 and the core internal components are IP67, making it waterproof and dustproof even when it is open. The DJI Dock’s interior is climate controlled, to help bring the batteries to the optimal temperature for charging the M30 safely even with external temperatures ranging from -35 to 50 degrees Celsius.

Its connectivity can be expanded, thanks to a port for an external 4G dongle. In case of power outage caused by a disaster, an internal battery will take over and keep the Dock operational, to make sure the M30 lands safely from its mission.

The DJI Dock only weighs 90 kg and covers an area of ​​less than 1 square meter, and can be transported by elevator; it only needs to be fixed on the ground, turned on, connected to the power supply, and connected to the internet. The DJI Dock integrates built-in antennas, a weather station, ultra-wide-angle surveillance cameras and a D-RTK base station. The installation is in one step, and the integrated design greatly reduces the difficulty of deployment.

The DJI Dock is also extremely easy and practical to set up and configure. It can be done directly on site with the DJI RC Plus offering complete control over the Dock and the M30, the missions and its scheduling, as well as the data collected.

The DJI Dock opens new possibilities for many fields that can benefit from automated flights, such as infrastructure inspection, site monitoring and engineering supervision. In areas where drones are allowed to fly autonomously, unattended or beyond the operator’s visual line of sight, the DJI Dock is ready to enable those operations, with remote supervision from another location through FlightHub 2.

DJI has also unveiled the Zenmuse H20N sensor specifically made for the DJI M300 RTK drone. The Zenmuse H20N is a hybrid sensor solution that combines a starlight-grade night vision camera, a hybrid zoom thermal imaging camera and a laser rangefinder for use with the M300 RTK. The ultra-low-illumination starlight-grade night vision camera can capture the scene clearly even in darkness, making it ideal for search and rescue operation or emergency situations requiring immediate recognition. It features starlight-grade night vision with low illumination to 0.0001 Lux, a 20x hybrid optical zoom, 640×512 resolution thermal imaging camera, 2x\8x optical zoom and a laser rangefinder with 1200m range.

Christina Zhang, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at DJI, commented: “DJI Enterprise is devoted to researching and developing new drone solutions explicitly designed to revolutionize work, helping everyday heroes in their missions saving lives, maintaining physical infrastructure, and preserving the natural environment. With the outstanding performance, transportability and ease of use of the DJI Matrice 30 drone and its perfect integration with the DJI FlightHub 2 Fleet Management Cloud Software and DJI Dock, DJI is stepping into the future for our Enterprise customers who will be able to enter the autonomous solutions space, creating possibilities to fly beyond visual line of sight with the appropriate regulatory permissions in place.”

“We are proud to deliver the next generation of aerial tools that will save lives and bring work to new heights, with a 360-degree product solution suite for a variety of fields such as energy inspection, emergency rescue missions, environmental protection, and the digitization and preservation of cultural heritage.”

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Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact