New Skydio Drone Teaser, Ban on Chinese Manufactured Drones, Phantom 4 RTK Updates and New Mapping Workflow

Proposed Law Seeks Ban on DJI Drones, DJI Airworks 2019 & Other DJI News

We start our drone news for today by discussing the American Securities Drone Act of 2019, a new bill that seeks to ban federal departments and state agencies from using Chinese-manufactured drones. Needless to say, this bill, if passed will have a huge impact on DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer.

But apart from DJI, this move will also impact the end-user – in this case, government agencies. Now, considering performance and price, DJI drones are often the sole choice for many government applications.

So, will this proposed ban end up hurting the American consumer much more than the Chinese manufacturer? Is this a knee-jerk reaction fueled by fear rather than rationale?

In yet more DJI news, we reveal some interesting details about DJI Airworks 2019, the annual drone conference being held in Los Angeles, CA from Sep 24th-Sep 26th. According to industry rumors, DJI has some interesting launches lined up for this event. From farming equipment to hardware for the Matrice series, listeners will get a sneak peek into this event.

New Skydio Drone Footage

Our next big drone story is about the soon-to-be-launched, Skydio R2. Skydio just released some Skydio R2 images which highlight the drone camera’s impressive dynamic range. From previous teasers, we had learned about the drone’s build and its flying capabilities.

In today’s show, we speculate on the Skydio R2 release date and pricing.

With DJI facing huge challenges on multiple fronts, will an American-manufactured, Skydio R2 provide drone pilots with a much-needed alternative?

Phantom 4 RTK Updates and New Mapping Workflow

Our last story is about the Phantom 4 RTK. DJI has released a new SDK remote which allows third-party developers to use the Phantom 4 RTK for complex mapping missions. Further, professional drone mappers now have the option of utilizing the base station as a rover. This shall be particularly helpful as a high-grade GNSS rover is prohibitively expensive.

To utilize the base station as a rover, mappers will have to connect the remote control to the rover, and then utilize the remote control to control the rover.

As we have discussed in previous ADU shows, to facilitate RTK corrections, a connection to a Ntrip network needs to be established via a cellular or WiFi network.

Now, with the new workflow, a connection to a Ntrip network needs to be established from the copter to the remote. After talking to multiple drone mappers and researchers, we reveal that many mappers are facing issues establishing this connection. So, can you overcome this issue to and seamlessly use this new mapping workflow?

Other topics discussed in today’s show include the “Storm Area 51” event, the “Heathrow Pause” and Phantom 4 Pro availability. Tune in for the latest and most exciting drone news!

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