DJI Matrice

The DJI Matrice introduced in mid 2016 is a heavy lift multirotor. It can carry a variety of the smaller Lidars such as the Velodyne models. Flight times are about 15 minutes. This is the first larger DJI multirotor which uses the proprietary DJI flight batteries. The advantage of DJI batteries is that they keep track of the number of charges, automatically discharge when sitting around unused, it’s easy to check their charge state, are easy and safe to charge, and are small enough to be legally carried onto a commercial air carrier. The disadvantage is that it used 6 batteries at once. To keep the usual 4 sets of batteries on hand translates to 24 batteries which is problematic to charge, heavy and bulky to transport – and a bit expensive. A portable generator and several high powered chargers are required to keep 3 sets of batteries on charge in order to maintain constant operations. The charging issue for larger electrics is a major one. Traveling with a large electric compounds raises the issues of bringing a generator, and lots of charging equipment when operating in the field.