Autel Robotics is a drone manufacturer located in Bothell, WA, United States. It was founded in 2014 and has 14 additional companies under its corporate family. It shot to fame with the introduction of its EVO series of drones. The company, however, started with a drone called X-Star. In 2021, Autel announced their latest flagship fixed-wing UAV called the Dragonfish. The commercial drone is a promising UAV with an impressive list of features.
A Promising DJI Rival
Autel became an increasingly popular brand in America after the launch of its EVO series. However, its first drone, the X-Star was quite similar in terms of design to DJI’s flagship drone Phantom. While DJI holds the majority of the drone market share, Autel’s drones are just as technically proficient and are giving the drone giant some competition. Autel Robotics is also known as Shenzhen Daotong Intelligent Aviation Technology Co. in China. Autel’s annual revenue was modeled at $8.86 million.
Products Offered by Autel
Autel Robotics offers three primary products:
- EVO Series Drones
- Dragonfish Drone
- Live Deck
The EVO series includes Pro and Enterprise models to accommodate users of all kinds.
1. EVO Series Drones
The EVO series is the most popular drone series by Autel. The series consists of the EVO II, EVO II Pro, EVO II Dual, and the EVO II Dual 640T. Autel has another series of drones called the EVO II RTK. The EVO II Pro comes with a large 1” 20MP CMOS image sensor with an f/2.8 -f/11 aperture. The drone can record up to 6K in resolution. Its high ISO of 12,800 helps in capturing better low-light shots.
The EVO drones are also known for their safety features. They come equipped with a 360° obstacle avoidance system. The EVO II Pro has groups of 19 sensors to actively map its environment. This enables the drone to autonomously track objects with the Dynamic Track 2.0 feature. The EVO II Pro has a flight time of 40 mins, a maximum transmission range of 5.5 miles, and a maximum speed of 45 mph.
2. The Dragonfish Drone
The Dragonfish is Autel’s latest commercial product. The Dragonfish is a fixed-wing commercial drone for mapping, surveillance, and vegetation management. It is a high-endurance drone with a flight time of 120 mins.
Autel provides three payload options to choose from with an option to install a third-party payload:
- 4K Dual Sensor: 4K 20x Stabilized Optical Zoom, 48 MP Wide Angle, 3-Axis Gimbal
- Triple Sensor: 4K 20x Stabilized Optical Zoom, 48 MP Wide Angle, 640×512 Radiometric Thermal, 3-Axis Gimbal
- Multispectral: 1 RGB Wide Angle (48 MP), 5 Multispectral Sensors (2 MP)
Check out our detailed feature on Autel’s Dragonfish drone here.
3. Live Deck
Live Deck is Autel’s flagship wireless ground-station management system. It extends the ground-station functionality at the expense of the range of the drone. It is used to improve communication on-ground.
The feed from the drone can be directly streamed to multiple screens. This makes it extremely useful in law enforcement and film-making operations. It can stream 1080p video at 60fps and has a battery life of 4 hours.
Conclusion
Autel’s products carry a wide range of applications. It has massively expanded on its EVO series making it highly versatile. With many enterprise and commercial drone options available, Autel is aiming to grasp a better market reach over the industrial sector. Either way, its drones are at par with those of DJI’s and are rapidly rising in popularity.
