We're in the market for a new UAV to carry a LiDAR sensor. We still haven't made up our mind on a particular sensor yet so I realize our final choice will be affected by that decision, but if you had to buy a new drone today to carry 5-8ish pounds, where would you look first considering what is going on with DJI?
Hello, Sir, what is your budget? Can you consider our drone with a load of 20kg? The sensor you mentioned can be fully carried.
Will you be doing government work? We just picked up an m350 and it's awesome...
So with the DJI ban coming is, what exactly are the implications of that? Are the only places we wouldn't be able to use it on government sites? If so, could the reach be expanded in the near future?
We do some government work but not enough to have to settle for a lesser quality American drone at a higher price if the only place we couldn't use the drone was government sites?
My understanding is that they will no longer be allowed to be sold in the US after a certain date. Needless to say we'll not be replacing our 3 DJI drones with DJI drones.
The 'ban' on DJI drones, or the Countering CCP Drones Act, was included within the National Defense Authorization Act and passed thru the House. However, it is not included in the version of the National Defense Authorization Act which the Senate has put out.
Even if the the CCP is passed and made into law, it actually only affects new DJI drone models being approved to operate within the jurisdiction of the FCC.
The short version is that existing DJI drone models, which already are approved by the FCC, would very, very likely still be legal to operate with the United States if the CCP (in it's current form) is ever passed.
I would also recommend the Matrice 350 and the Zenmuse L2 lidar payload - quite nice.
If you want an American DJI drone, take a look at these guys:
For a first drone, I would go with the cheapest you could get by with. Or have a cheap secondary to practice with. Crashing an expensive drone due to inexperience would suck. Crashing a DJI Mini 4 you practice with? Less so.
Hello
I buy my almost new Wingtra One drone.
Tough question…..
The non-DJI drones are about 5 years behind in technology, and about twice the price compared to DJI.
If you not in a rush, DJI has already been making plans to have Indonesian, Malaysian, and South American companies produce DJI clones, using the DJI recipe. These would meet the pricepoint and technological advantage of DJI, while meeting the US china drone restrictions. From the rumors, it does NOT sound like any LiDAR drones will be included in this partnership anytime soon.
If you are in a rush, I would ask if you are going to process your own data? If not, I would reach out to your processing folks and get their recommendations. We use Aerotas, and the limitations of the M300 is addressed by how aerotas have me set up our flight paths and control. It also helps that we don’t generally use lidar for heavy tree cover (M350 is better).
Yellowscan, inspired flight and wingtra may be good options. Rock robotics was good, but I don’t know if they have released anything new in a while. The problem is none of them, are as integrated as anything by DJI. Autel is likely going to be included in the ban.
As another option that we are likely going to do, but we already have 2 DJI drones. Continue to collect the data with a drone. Everything is allowable and billable except for the flight. You can still charge for control, layout and processing, but you have to eat anytime spent with the drone or the controller. Of course this is just for any projects using federal funds. Note different rules apply with state bans, or working on military bases.
Best of luck.
