Joe Paone
If you took a stroll through the “Unmanned Systems Marketplace” at CES 2016 and saw the multitude of drone manufacturers hawking their wares, you’d think that drones are poised to go mainstream this year. And you might be right. Some of those products will go on to become highly successful in 2016. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was even on site to register attendees’ drones.
The leaders in the category (to date) had some news to share. Parrot introduced Disco, an ultra-light wing-shaped drone that is controlled by autopilot “with no learning process,” said the company.
Parrot also showed Bebop 2, an ultra-light “all-in-one” drone with a built-in full-HD wide-angle camera.
DJI announced the Phantom 3 4K, a 4K Wi-Fi version of its Phantom 3 Series that it called its “most accessible 4K aerial camera to date.” It also introduced a black version of its Inspire 1 Pro drone.
Yuneec introduced the Typhoon H, which it called “a more sophisticated drone” with features usually only found in high-end professional drones, with a “consumer price” of $1,799.
EHang showed a manned system, the EHang 184.
Extreme Fliers’ super-small Micro Drone 3.0, which has raised over $3 million on Indiegogo.
Fleye showed its “personal flying robot.”
GoPro talked about its upcoming Karma drone but didn’t show it.