4. Shock absorbing landing gear

This one is a bit unexpected but really makes an interesting difference in the Matrice 100. On each of the four landing gear ground-contact points there are now pneumatic, shock absorbing landing gear ‘feet’.

When the Matrice 100 comes down for a landing, it gently settles down on a pneumatic cushion of air located in each of the 4 ground contact points.

While this new feature is not going to salvage your drone from a catastrophic landing, it dissipates the ‘hop and bounce’ effect sometimes seen, and should make a difference in reducing stress on the structure as a whole. We can definitely see this feature being scaled and migrating over to future DJI products.

Straight outta Compton [animated GIF]

3. Four directional-antennas, all facing different directions

Nobody likes losing connection with their drone. The Matrice 100 has added four directional-antennas (one on each leg) covering a full 360º with a slight downward angle. This is similar to the Inspire 1, but is a nice improvement as the Inspire’s antennae face forwards and backwards. Because of this, we expect the M100 to be able to fly further away from the user without losing connectivity.

2. Quick-lock props

DJI pioneered self-tightening props with the Phantom, released back in 2013. The M100 brings a new evolution to installing props. Gone are the days of having to spin the props to install them — the Matrice 100 now has a new quick-lock feature that allows you to install props in seconds, as opposed to previous methods; which took more seconds.

While this marginal increase in prop installation time may not sound like much, it goes a long way to make DJI’s drones feel that much more professional and user-friendly with each release.

The other benefit here is that the props are locked in place, so even if the motors brake hard, there’s no risk of having the props loosen.

A 1/4 turn to securely attach the props to their motors, then press down and turn the opposite direction to detach them [animated GIF]

1. Active sonar and stereoscopic cameras to detect and avoid obstacles

Hands down, this is our favorite new feature on the Matrice 100 — and it’s a big one. DJI has integrated sensors into their new drone that can detect obstacles in close proximity to it and automatically take evasive action to try to avoid them.

The M100 comes with five proximity sensors that are mounted on the front, back, left and right sides, as well as underneath. These sensors have sonar — similar to what is seen on the Phantom 3 and Inspire 1 — to help it detect large surfaces, but they also have two stereoscopic cameras (seen on the extreme ends of the sensor).

Much like the two eyes we have — this allows the drone to see in 3D and do depth reconstruction, allowing it to avoid trickier objects which don’t respond well to sonar.

Having these sensors cover all around and below the drone will allow computer vision experts to create further-reaching sense and avoid capabilities for this vehicle.

DJI Matrice 100 obstacle avoidance sensors in action (no manual input was applied) [animated GIF]

First Matrice 100 map with DroneDeploy!

DJI Matrice 100 agriculture orthomosaic map in California

A big plus with the Matrice 100 is that soon you’ll be able to use it with DroneDeploy for creating maps like the above, taken over a vineyard in Northern California. The quality of the M100 camera is quite good and is identical to that of the Inspire 1.

Additional data can be derived from each map such as the digital surface model (DSM) below of the same vineyard, taken from the exact same set of data. All of these photos were processed autonomously, in the cloud, through the DroneDeploy mobile app.

DJI Matrice 100 agriculture DSM map in California

Flight time on the M100 is similar to the Inspire 1 but you do have the option to add an additional battery on the M100 for an advertised figure of up to 40 minutes of flight time.

Conclusion

DJI continues to impress. Hot off the heels of the Phantom 3 launch, DJI’s offerings are growing and raising the bar on the consumer drone industry at a rapid pace. DJI is starting to really come into its own (with recent valuations at $10 billion, it’s definitely a great time) and now has a respectable three-pronged drone offering that fits almost any user: