In a Tweet from a few days ago, a photo and video are shown of what seems to be a weaponized DJI Matrice 210 that was allegedly seized by the Taliban from Afghan security forces during a night raid in the Garamsir district of the Helmond province in Afghanistan.
Correction: an earlier version of this article erroneously said it was a DJI Matrice 200 when it is in fact an M210
CES 2020 in Las Vegas was a great place to meet up with people in the drone industry and you always learn something new. One of the things we picked up this time, is that the DJI Matrice 300 is rumored to be launched in late February. It seems that DJI realized that after a number of reports came out of crashing DJI Matrice 200 / 210 drones, it was time for an updated and improved version. In the days after CES, we have been able to confirm these rumors through a secondary source.
Today, DJI releases a firmware update for one of its most important enterprise drones the DJI Matrice 200 series (DJI), which includes the M200 and M210. There are two firmware updates one for the battery and one for the aircraft. See below for details.
We’ve learned more about how missing six-year-old Ethan was found with help of more than 700 volunteers and a commercial drone pilot with a DJI Matrice 210 outfitted with a Zenmuse XT2 thermal camera. This morning the Washington Post has a detailed article about what it took and how a community came together to rescue the missing child, Ethan Haus. He would not have been found without the help of the hundreds of volunteers but the drone with the thermal camera played a crucial role in this successful search and rescue mission.
During a drone demonstration by local fire and police departments in Ohio, a demo flight turned into a real search and rescue operation when a father asked Fire Chief Brian Miller and Police Cpl. Justin Alloway to help locate his nine-year-old daughter. It all happened during the Fourth Friday event last week in Westerville when thousands of people crowd the streets of the Ohio town. Hannah, the missing girl, had walked ahead of her family and the father couldn’t find her anymore. Luckily, the DJI M210 drone located the girl within minutes and reunited the family. Drones for good!
Today, DJI introduces the Manifold 2 supercomputer that will turn your Matrice 210 or 600 into an autonomous drone. The Manifold 2 is a very compact supercomputer onboard of your unmanned aircraft that allows businesses to develop advanced autonomous aerial robotics solutions. DJI tells us that Automodality is already using the Manifold 2 in their inspection work of infrastructure. They use it on the M210. Watch this video here to see how Modality uses DJI drones to inspect bridges and other infrastructure.
The DJI Manifold 2 is available for purchase through authorized DJI Enterprise resellers worldwide. For customers in North America, Manifold 2 is also available online through DJI’s store at store.dji.com. The CPU version is $1,379 and the GPU version is $1,099.
You can read the official DJI press release below.
After having used the DJI Matrice 210 for the first time in a training session earlier in the morning, the Halifax firefighters successfully used the unmanned aircraft in a search-and-rescue later that same day. On a dark and cold night in December the firefighters decided to send their new drone up one more time in their search for a missing person. The search had officially been called off, but the firefighters went ahead anyway. This time they used a different angle with their thermal camera and they found the semi-conscious man under a bridge. The man was picked up and rushed to the hospital. It was a turning point for the firefighters and they realized drones are much more than just a toy.
New versions of the popular enterprise drones are underway. In an FCC filing (FCC ID SS3-M200V21811) the DJI Matrice 200 V2, Matrice 210 V2 and Matrice 210 RTK V2 show up. From the filing, it does not become obvious what kind of improvements can be expected. Nor does it give us any indication as to when these new models may be released. Typically there between 4-8 weeks between a new DJI product showing up in FCC filings and its actual release. Unless, of course, there is a delay.
Yesterday, the Fire Department of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana flew their DJI Matrice 210 with dual camera setup for the first time ever in heavy rain. On Twitter, they reported that: “She performed like a champ!”. Since March of this year, DJI Enterprise has increased their efforts to break into the commercial drone market and specifically the first responders. As we know, drones can help to save lives and it is good to see more first responders starting to use them.