DJI Matrice 600 Release - Next Generation Aerial Platform

Last night DJI announced the release of the latest model in their modular aerial platform lineup, the Matrice 600. Aimed at professional filmmakers and industrial applications, the Matrice 600 pushes the boundaries of performance, accuracy, reliability and payload. It has been designed to carry the all-new Ronin MX allowing directors to send professional cinema cameras such as a Red Epic into the air; Whilst still supporting existing Zenmuse gimbals.

What's new? A Summary of the release

• All-new upgradable A3 Flight control system
• 6 Arm, 6 Rotor craft with retractable landing gear
• Powered by Six 4500mAh 6S Lipo batteries
• Between 36 and 16 minute flight time, payload dependant
• Max payload of 6.0kg (including any gimbal)
• Supports new Ronin MX, backwards compatible with previous Zenmuse Gimbals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKbBratqPNs

New frame Kit

As with the current Matrice 100, the new craft comes in kit form requiring assembly. When constructed and configured, the craft can be setup in and ready to use in mere minutes. The new craft is powered by 6 individual (TB47s) flight batteries, offering greater portability (air freight) as well as redundancy in the air. Just one button fires all 6 cells up.

Powerful Technology

Supplied with the revised lightbridge 2, the Matrice 600 and Ronin MX are DJI Focus compatible offering unrivaled flexibility in aerial shooting. This will allow operators to perform an aerial pull focus shot monitored via a 1080p feed at 60fps from up to 3miles away! Indeed with the SDI video output the equipment can output 720p @59.94FPS and 1080i@50fps broadcast quality streams. As ever, the flight controller can link to the ground station via a new data link making it easy to plot complicated flight plans. It will also be fully compatible with the current SDK, with two CAN and API ports for connecting devices like the guidance system. With its maximum payload of 6kg, the Matrice 600 will fly for 15 minutes, whilst with the lighter Zenmuse X5R it will fly for up to 35 minutes. Its maximum takeoff weight is an impressive 15.1kg.  

A3 : A brand-new Flight Controller

DJI have evolved their class-leading A2 flight controller to the new A3 edition. New attitude determination and multi-sensor fusion algorithms improve the A3’s control accuracy. This allows the Matrice 600 to repeatedly fly a path again and again at very high accuracy. The flight controller is upgradable (with two kits) to a 'PRO' edition that adds to the sensor array giving the craft 3 GNSS units and 3 IMU's to compare data from. This can be taken a step further to a full D-RTK setup which promises centimeter levels of accuracy in positioning. We will looking more in detail to the new A3 flight controller in an upcoming blog.

Matrice 600 : Price and Ordering

The Matrice 600 is available to order today for £3,999, shipping estimated to start May 2016. Packages with the new Ronin-MX and Zenmuse-Z15 gimbals will also be available shortly.