Microdrones MD1000DG

We've recently got into the drone game and after a lot of research, settled for the "industry standard" DJI P4P. That cost us $3K, it's a beaut for us to get into the game. However, after doing a few flights and trying the photo stitching part - most of our jobs are rural road corridors - the value of PPK (and liDAR) is apparent. DJI I think do offer that, but that would then go up to $25K, however, like most things, the savings in time and stress would probably offset that extra cost.

I can totally see that. I have used, helped, set GCP for many DJI uses. I have also used the eBee RTK. None of it is easy and quick. And honestly I haven't been too impressed with the fixed wing stuff.?ÿ

We are looking at this drone to work in tandem with out MX-2. I figure we can drive to corridor with the MX-2 and fly the MD1000DG and all the data will come in together - probably even use the ground targets for the MX-2 for the drone if need be . The cost I am sure is pushing 100k, but if we can drive 25 miles with the truck and fly the surrounding surface "beyond the ROW brushline we can knock out a lot of roadway rather quickly and the cost will be worth it.?ÿ

In the line of work we are in there are three classes of equipment: basic, professional, and No BS. The older I get, the less interest I have for the first two.?ÿ

Posted by: StLSurveyor

We are looking at this drone to work in tandem with out MX-2. ?ÿ

We looked into that as well, and it does look like the ultimate, but beyond our budget. The exception would be a big job (or the promise of lots of small ones) but then we'd have to compete in price against those promising P4P can give 1cm accuracy - that may be remotely the case on hard pavements, but here (although grass doesn't generally grow in the road) grass on the verge and beyond can be up to 2m high, so whatever is being used, photo or liDAR, ground survey is required.

I think for us at the moment we'll be hoping to get from the P4P, site images at a lot better resolution than that from satellite images, and we'll be happy with that.

Microdrones has an arrangement with Trimble and is selling the MD1000 thru Trimble dealers. That MD1000 is a big machine. I've got no experience with the drone itself, but I've seen the imagery and processed data from it (using Pix4D) and it is really good.

The relationship with Trimble is one reason why I am looking at those. We use PosPac for our mobile LiDAR...I'm really curious if Trident can process the data since, after all there is a trajectory file??

We have an MD4-1000 but we don't have the DG package. A lot of the appeal to me of the MD4-1000 was the DG, but the decision makers aren't seeing enough benefit to justify the cost... yet. We also have a DJI P4P, if all you want is pictures and video it's fine but the MD4-1000 is a much better tool. It's very stable and the deliverables are very good.

The DG has PPK and an Applanix IMU; you process the trajectory in PosPac and then bring it in to Pix4D or whatever. Hopefully there will come a day when PosPac is integrated into TBC, because as a standalone it's kind of a POS and Applanix is a PITA do deal with. Yes, they're a Trimble company, but apparently they fail to grasp that we're all playing for the same team, at least based on my admittedly little experience in dealing with them.

We process MD data in Pix4D, I don't own Trident and don't know anything about it.

I do wish Microdrones had more of a presence in the US; if your UAS needs repairs it has to go to Montreal, with all of the cost and time that shipping something like that internationally (yeah I know it's Canada but still) entails. I would think that the US is a slightly larger market than Canada but I'm just a dumb surveyor.

Well I just checked and our local Trimble dealer has them in stock. I'm going to get a demo. Same reps that does the MX-2 does the drones. So he has a good idea on what we want to achieve.?ÿ

It's an impressive system, overall we're very happy with it. One of the most appealing things about it is the ease of changing sensor packages, and their apparent commitment to developing a diverse and high quality array of sensor options.