Hi all, our survey team is looking at getting a second drone. Our current one is large and looking at getting a smaller one as a second drone. Obvious choices are the DJI Phantom 4 Pro, or one of their other drones. What other drones are people looking at or using? We aren’t doing massive areas, so quadcopters good for what we do. Also, are people using RTK? We are thinking of not going down this path, as we would still be ground truthing, so adding control points not a big problem.
Vertical lift:
Phantom 4 Pro - Small, agile, low cost, ease of operation and maintenance, excellent sensor, soon to be RTK , ubiquitous.
Inspire 2 Pro - Sensor agile, simplex-duplex operation, ubiquitous
M600 - medium lifter so there is more ability to customize system to your collection needs, senor flexible but for RGB the Sony A7 is only viable sensor, RTK, sim-ubiquitous.
Beebop - very small, I’ve only played with data provided by Pix4D…
Topcon Falcon 8+ - only looked at specs and other companies outputs…
Custom systems - maybe most cost effective way to meet specific requirements but not practical in most cases.
Fixed wing:
I’ve custom built and pre-built systems, not satisfied with them. So far nothing out there seems to meet operational capability like DJI vertical systems, however I gave up on fixed-wing many years ago and have not studied latest system specs.
Just my perspective!
.
I’m using the Dji Mavic 2 Pro and it’s excellent for mapping missions. It’s very fast and has an excellent sensor (1 inch Hasselblad).
Thanks guys. Jason, have you moved to the Mavic 2 Pro from another drone, and if so have you notices any increase in accuracy based on the improved sensor?
I’m trying to get some accuracy info for the Mavic 2 Pro. We were using a Phantom 4 Pro and getting great results but our unit is failing and waiting to hear if it can be serviced. I need to get a second drone to complete a current project. We are using the point clouds for topo information and creating orthoimages to draw 2d improvements locations. I’m concerned about the rolling shutter camera in the mavic pro2. I see that PIX4D has a rolling algorithm but will it be as accurate as my Phantom 4 Pro? Any help or how can I contact an technical engineer at PIX4D