Shenzhen company secures largest order of commercial drones

Commercial drone data company Skycatch, and DJI, the world’s leading manufacturer of civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, have extended their partnership to manufacture and deliver a fleet of 1,000 high-precision drones for Komatsu Smart Construction. This represents the largest commercial drone order in history. Each drone is manufactured by DJI and outfitted with specialized Skycatch technology, and is the first time DJI has manufactured a custom drone for a partner.

DJI, also known as Dajiang Innovations is headquartered in Shenzhen. The founder and chief executive, Frank Wang Tao studied electronic and computer engineering and graduated at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2006.

DJI’s global operations currently span across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and its products and solutions have been selected by customers for applications including filmmaking, construction, inspection, emergency response, agriculture and conservation.

Skycatch was founded in the US and is a commercial drone data company that provides full end-to-end technology solutions and deployed on job sites around the world from construction, mining, and energy.

“Conducting a site survey using a drone used to take hours. However, by implementing Explore1, users can carry out surveying quickly and easily. Now it is possible to perform drone surveying every day. Taking off, landing and flight route setting are all automated. Ground Control Points (GCPs) are no longer needed. 3D data is immediately generated and an entire construction site can be visually checked with the 3D map. The Explore1 is a true game changer for the construction site,” said Chikashi Shike, Executive Office of Smart Construction Division at Komatsu.

“The Explore1 demonstrates DJI’s strategy to provide customers with the most powerful and reliable drone platforms on the market that can be tailored to the needs of any industry,” said Jan Gasparic, Head of Enterprise Partnerships at DJI. “Our close collaboration with Skycatch on this exciting program has resulted in a best-in-class solution of software and hardware for aerial surveying that truly changes the game for both our customers and the commercial drone industry.”

Source: DJI