Last year during the U.S. launch of Aeroscope in Washington DC, Brendan Schulman, DJI’s VP of Policy and Legal Affairs, already announced that a new geofencing system was in the works. DJI GEO 2.0 more accurately geofences the areas around airports and airfields. A big difference versus the previous version of geofencing is that DJI GEO 2.0 takes into account the orientation of runways and the flightpaths. One look at the included image will explain you the difference right away.

DJI GEO 1.0

The first version of DJI’s geofencing system was introduced a few years ago in response to the increasing number of drone incidents. DJI GEO 1.0 basically showed 2D circles around airports and airfields. When you tried to launch your DJI drone inside one of those circular geofenced areas, DJI will not allow you to fly your aircraft.

DJI’s Global Authorization Team

Now in the majority of situations, these flight restrictions are fine, however, in some cases, exceptions are warranted. In many cases, you can self-unlock the geofenced area but in certain situations close to an airport you cannot even though the operation of a drone may be necessary. Think for instance of emergency responders of local law enforcement officials that need to fly a DJI drone near an airport. To quickly facilitate these kinds of requests, DJI recently introduced a Global Authorization Team that can unlock a geofenced area within minutes. This was DJI’s first big improvement of their geofencing system.

DJI GEO 2.0

The second major improvement was announced during DJI Airworks and has recently been made available, DJI GEO 2.0. This version is much more accurate in the areas that are included. As you can see in the image above the circles are more precisely drawn on the map and the runways and flight paths are included as well.

The grey areas that extend from the runways are 3D geofenced areas, meaning that you can fly your drone there low to the ground. The restriction only kicks in at certain alitude levels. This offers better protection and prevention of drones getting into airspace typically used for manned aircraft. DJI GEO 2.0 also shows you the direction of these runways.

And, lastly, DJI GEO 2,0 will allow you to fly your drone in areas closer to the airport that were previously fenced off. All in all, DJI GEO 2.0 is a very good and welcome improvement. Let us know what you think about DJI GEO 2.0 in the comments below.

DJI's GEO 2.0 geofencing systems is now active. You can easily see how this upgrade enhances safety in the flight corridors leading into and out of airport runways. Here's GEO v1.0 compared to GEO v2.0 for SFO airport. pic.twitter.com/6GJNTC0bub — Brendan Schulman (@dronelaws) November 19, 2018

DJI's new GEO 2.0 geofencing system also more accurately reflects the perimeter boundaries of sensitive facilities such as prisons, using polygon data provided by @PrecisionHawk. Here is Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio, GEO v1 compared to GEO v2. pic.twitter.com/8n1jqFfLZj — Brendan Schulman (@dronelaws) November 19, 2018

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