Redwood City, Calif.-based drone company Skydio has introduced the Skydio 2 drone, along with a charging base station.
Built on the Skydio Autonomy Engine, the new drone has a 4k60HDR camera, approximately 2.17 miles of wireless range and 23 minutes of flight time.
Compact enough to fit “anywhere you can carry a 13-inch laptop,” the company says, the drone uses a mobile app “designed to be more like a camera app than a cockpit,” as well as an optional controller. In addition, with Skydio Beacon, users can track the drone by using visual tracking with GPS, control the drone by pointing where they want it to go, and access cinematic features such as Dronie or Rocket.
With a limited supply offered in 2019, Skydio 2, available for $999, is expected to start shipping in November, the company says.
The weatherproof charging base station, known as the Skydio 2 Dock, fits in a carry-on suitcase and can be set up in minutes. The company says the solution “enables truly persistent operations for enterprise applications.”
Earlier this year, Cape, a cloud platform for remote drone operations, announced it would be dropping support for DJI drones. As part of the decision, Cape launched the Cape Preferred Partner Program (P3), a new initiative aimed at ensuring the security of commercial drone integrations across industries. Skydio then became the first company to officially join Cape P3.
The combination of Skydio’s drone technology and the Cape Aerial Telepresence software is designed to offer users drone data protection while enabling ease of use and accessibility of captured footage by existing industry-specific enterprise applications, the partners said.
“Skydio’s advancements in autonomous drone technology expand the horizons for aerial data capture for consumers, enterprises and first responders by enabling robust, precise, autonomous and semi-autonomous flight in every environment, in close proximity to obstacles and in GPS-denied environments,” said Adam Bry, CEO at Skydio, in July. “With the Cape partnership, users of Skydio’s upcoming drones will be able to remotely operate the drones without fear of crashing, and without putting anybody in harm’s way.”
