Today we are celebrating with RocketDNA, the Australia Stock-exchange listed remote sensing company whose deployment of the DJI Dock is steadily creeping towards 10,000 flights – with 8,000 having been achieved so far and 2,000 flight hours clocked.

It has now been over a year since RocketDNA was approved as one of the first operators of the DJI Dock platform of drone nests; and having convinced its clientele about the amazing capabilities of the drone-in-a-box; the company has announced that it has managed to rack up over 8,000 flights, with approximately 2,000 flights hours, across our fleet of autonomous xBot systems.

RocketDNA’s xBot is a Drone-in-a-Box (DiaB) solution for remote enterprise operations; which works with a combination of the DJI Dock and supplementary hardware and software from the drone services company.

Coming ready-to-deploy in a ruggedised, skid-based design with industrial-grade electrical and communication systems, the solution is built for extreme environments.

“This 8,000-flights milestone demonstrates the growing need, within enterprise organisations, for an on-demand geospatial and visual data service that is reliable, relevant and robust within ever-changing environmental conditions,” RocketDNA said in a statement.

“As one of the most experienced operators in this space, RocketDNA understands that scaling drone-in-a-box (DiaB) operations is no easy feat – in comparison to traditional drone operations where you can pack the drone in bag and fly, DiaB requires careful integration into your physical and virtual infrastructure, with careful planning, proven engineering and a deep understanding of the technical systems required to deploy drone-in-a-box at scale.

“For Enterprise customers, this means high standards with regards to the electrical, cyber-security and data accuracy, as well as detailed project management, seamless logistics and workers health and safety execution.”

Some of extreme conditions that the xBot has experienced over the last 12-months include:

• 47°C (117°F) Heat: Equipped with an industrial HVAC system, the xBot® is able to withstand high temperatures while ensuring longevity for the electrical components.
• Flash Floods: The Goldfields Region of Western Australia experienced unusually heavy rains earlier this year, with one of our xBots facing 40mm of rainfall within a 12-hour period, resulting in the flash flooding of the xBot® location (see image below).
• Hailstorms: In addition to the heavy rainfall, hailstorms swept past, in a separate event, producing hailstones the size of golf-balls, puncturing the lids of the Dock.  As the components are designed to be modular, it was a quick swop-out the next day, and the operations were back on track.
• Violent Storms: Our xBots have recently experienced storms in excess of 100km/h wind speeds, with trees uprooting nearby, while the xBot® remained secure and operational, providing invaluable emergency response information to rescue and clean-up crews the next day.

RocketDNA operates its system from three Remote Operating Centres in Johannesburg, Adelaide and Perth, operated by low-latency satellite connectivity and ensuring round the clock availability across the company’s global operations.

“Our remote operations include all the necessary regulatory approvals required to get you flying today. Our commercial model has no minimum commitment period, so you are able to easily trial this new technology, while being safely guided by the industry-leader.

“With the advent of autonomous DiaB systems, drone data capture has become commoditised, with the trend now focusing on automating existing workflows to help improve the overall efficiency and availability of engineers and other technical staff.”

RocketDNA’s list of clients range from mining conglomerates in Africa and Australia, agricultural services companies, as well as construction companies.