In the two years of the new crown epidemic that has ravaged the world, many originally unknown heroes have suddenly become known to the public, and the Chinese-made DJI drone is also one of them. Today's drones are already an important "productivity tool" in many industries, and front-line users have generally recognized the performance of existing models. However, this time, DJI has released a series of revolutionary commercial application matrix products, which have brought more imagination space to many industries.
Sci-fi scenes? It has long been normalized
Many countries around the world are using "God's perspective" drones to help maintain social distancing, deliver drugs, take body temperature... The scenes of drone fancy helping to fight the epidemic have caught fire on social media, and netizens sighed that this is simply a science fiction movie. However, many people in the industry feel that these are not too novel, because drones have been used as productivity tools in various industries, and many usages have been normalized.
In the past, manual power inspections needed to cross mountains and mountains
Tian Li, the special director of the transmission line of the State Grid Sichuan Power Transmission and Transformation Company and a senior expert in the application of unmanned aerial vehicles in the power grid, introduced that the UAV power inspection has been very popular, and the penetration rate in the southern power grid is almost 100%. In the past, consumer-grade drones could also see the details on the line tower, but to fly close to 2 meters or even 1.5 meters, which was relatively demanding for drone pilots and great psychological pressure. Now, in addition to being used in more harsh environments, professional drones can also see the target from tens of meters away with a zoom lens, the difficulty of operation is greatly reduced, and temperature data can be recorded with infrared load.
Wu Guoqiang, a technical expert on fire drones and a member of the DJI Emergency Alliance, said that the situation in the field of fire rescue is similar, and a few years ago, ordinary aerial drones were used to observe fires. The intuitive "God perspective" helps to extinguish the fire in the front, and also provides an important decision basis for reinforcement and equipment selection for the superior units in the rear. The professional unmanned aerial vehicles such as DJI Jingwei M300 make them shine again, its endurance is stronger, more able to be used in harsh conditions, and thermal imaging equipment can be used to find fire points under thick smoke, which plays a greater role in the fire field.
After the rainstorm in Zhengzhou, the drone drilled into the tunnel to explore the way
Looking at more industries, the use of drones has become a daily routine. Police in many parts of the world have long been accustomed to the use of drones in law enforcement, in patrols, traffic diversion, recording and restoration of the scene, emergency and other fields are used; the guardians of the fire rescue field have long been familiar with these technologies, notre dame fire and Zhengzhou rainstorm after the drone are immediately skilled in the application of; in the field of power, energy, construction and other engineering, drones are also widely used in inspection, digital modeling, auxiliary construction; in wildlife and environmental protection, Drones have also become an important monitoring and evaluation tool, playing a huge role in ensuring the safety of people and elephants when Asian elephants in Yunnan left last year; in addition, in the protection of cultural relics, "physical examinations" of old buildings... And many other fields have also had the mature use of drones.
Data from the DJI industry also show that as of 2021, DJI Emergency Response Alliance members have used drones to participate in more than 100 national emergency rescue operations; power grid engineers have completed more than 1.2 million kilometers of inspection through unmanned aerial vehicles, which is equivalent to about 30 circles around the earth; and surveying and mapping workers across the country have established high-precision three-dimensional models of more than 170 cultural relics and monuments with the help of surveying and mapping drones, including important cultural relics such as leshan giant Buddha, the Great Wall, the Yellow Crane Tower, the Forbidden City in Shenyang, and the ancient city of Pingyao. These three-dimensional models provide important data support for future monument protection and restoration work.
It is also normal for ordinary people not to realize this, on the one hand, because these guardians who use drones are used to being behind-the-scenes heroes, and on the other hand, the former drones are indeed very ungrounded. "A bunch of users called and wanted to buy it, but they couldn't afford it when they asked for the price." About 10 years ago, there were drone sellers who sighed like this, when the drones were often millions, and the terminal price of high-end imported drones was tens of millions of yuan. Looking ahead, drones are not a new thing, since the advent of 1917 has a history of more than a hundred years, but for a long time this high-end technology is almost impossible for civilians.
It is after drones have become easy to use and inexpensive in recent years, and their applications have really blossomed everywhere. It is understood that many of the creative uses of drones are explored by front-line workers themselves. As early as the great development of "industry application drones", there were many people who took early aerial drones such as "elves" to solve practical problems encountered in work. These drones, which are still very primitive from the current point of view, still solve the pain points of many industries such as public security, fire protection, electricity, surveying and mapping with the "God perspective", and also stimulate more imagination of front-line operators for drones.
What do you want? Smaller and smarter
On March 21, DJI Industry Applications released products including the M30 series of medium-sized flagship drones, the one-stop drone mission management cloud platform, DJI Airport, which supports 7×24-hour unmanned operations, and the Starlight-level Night Vision Camera Load Zenmuse H20N with the theme of "To the Guardian". These new products break the boundaries of previous technologies, and through the combination of each other, they bring new intelligent, automated, unmanned application solutions to industry users, and can make drones truly unattended!
This new product, the application of the industry drone to miniaturization, intelligence, unmanned direction to promote a step, it can be said that it is very suitable for the needs of the front line.
First, miniaturization can allow drones to reach deeper into the grassroots. A police officer said that some drones in the past were too bulky and inconvenient to carry and deploy when the emergency police were dispatched. Therefore, more than 80% of the drones used by the police around the world are DJI's small drones, and the portable and portable DJI "Royal 2 Industry Edition" is particularly popular at the grassroots level.
Wu Guoqiang said that in fire rescue, there is a greater need for portable and convenient drones, because fire extinguishing needs to race against the clock, and it also needs to be frequently transferred according to the smoke situation. Tian Li said that the same is true in the field of power inspection, because the vehicles that go out to inspect every day are already very crowded, and it is difficult to plug large drones. And sometimes you need to hike over the mountains, and you want to be able to stuff the drone into your backpack.
Intelligent and unmanned can make grassroots work easier, but also reduce the difficulty of getting started, and then promote drones to more fields. Tian Li said that he is very optimistic about the practical application of drone airports. They have used the "precision retake" function in the power inspection, that is, after manually controlling the flight inspection once, the drone can automatically complete the daily inspection in the future along this route. He believes that automatic airports can be completely unattended, which can better reduce labor intensity.
There are still many people in the industry who are also optimistic about the drone airport, because there is a demand for emergency response and daily inspection in many fields, and there are many companies around the world that have entered the research. However, existing products have not yet gained the trust of users, on the one hand, they are worried about the match between reliability and airport-drones, and on the other hand, they think that many products are too bulky to deploy.
DJI's answer: An intelligent system is coming
Of course, the answer sheet handed over by DJI this time is not only this, but also more details.
Latitude M30 series drone
Wu Guoqiang, who has tried the M30, said that in the field of fire rescue, DJI M30 can achieve the function of endurance and load comparable to the M300, but also portable and can be quickly unfolded within 10 seconds is very practical. He also said that the 7-inch high-brightness screen equipped with the remote control of the M30 is brighter, clearer, smoother and more convenient for many people to watch and discuss decisions, without sacrificing portability, and can still be easily packed into the storage bag.
Tian Li also tried the M30, he said that the powerful and portable characteristics of this drone are very "fragrant" in the power inspection, and it does not take up space when put into the car. However, he said that it is not necessary to climb the mountain to take it out for inspection - because it has a strong endurance, a stable remote control signal can control 10 kilometers away, and it is measured to be stable in the 7 to 8 wind at an altitude of 4000 meters (DJI's nominal wind resistance is up to 15 meters / s), and it is completely possible to stop and take off in place to inspect the operation.
With Sikong 2, the command center can also manage mission and media data. When operating with multiple units, multiple high-definition live broadcast screens can be adjusted to grasp the scene immediately. Operators can mark points, lines, and polygons, mark targets, measure distances, and distribute work areas on the Sikong 2 interface. Sikong 2 also comes with its own 2.5D basemap, accurate elevation information, so that the flat drawing is three-dimensional. Job details can also be obtained by synchronizing panoramas in real time and quickly creating maps in the cloud (visible and infrared).
The DJI Airport, which is tailor-made for DJI drones, weighs 90kg and covers an area of less than 1 square meter, integrating built-in antennas, integrated weather stations, ultra-wide-angle surveillance cameras and D-RTK base stations. Its whole machine protection class IP55, with 40KA lightning protection design, can work normally in the range of -35 °C to 50 °C, installation in one step, and no need to be on duty or frequent on-site, only need to maintain once every 6 months. It also has a built-in backup battery, which can ensure the safe return of the drone after the power is cut off.
DJI Airport used in conjunction with the M30
DJI Airport has made it possible to automate drones in inaccessible areas, bringing new gospel to automated patrols, infrastructure inspections, project supervision and other fields. With the M30 series airport version and the Sikong 2 cloud platform, it can remotely issue flight plans, collect multi-dimensional information, and cover patrol and inspection work within a radius of 7 kilometers of the airport under good conditions. With the fast charging module, the drone can take off again in just 25 minutes after operation.
Zen H20N
Zhang Xiaonan, senior director of corporate strategy at DJI, said: Efficient operation and safe home are the common aspirations of guardians from all walks of life. We are honored to play to our strengths and work side by side with those who are on the ground. DJI Industry Application will insist on transforming technological innovation into more efficient industry solutions, provide safe, reliable and handy industry drone products and services for practitioners in various fields, and continue to create social value.
From past experience, every time the development and application of drone technology, it will empower more industries. They often do more than product designers could have imagined. What kind of changes can drones bring to the world this time? We'll see.
Source: Global Network Drone/Zhao Hanqing