Parrot Anafi 2: Newest workhorse drone leaked!

Parrot is planning on launching the Analfi 2 drone this coming week! Numerous camera payloads and powerful zoom will make consumers and public safety very happy.

Parrot, who has stirred the pot about purchasing Chinese made drones, will launch their new drone this coming week on June 3oth, 2020.  Drone pilots are expecting to see two different version of the new Analfi Drone.  Previous versions of the Anafi garnished comments from pilots complaining of weak signal strength, reduced maneuverability and lack of features.  Drone pilots are expecting to see improved transmission distance, a better camera and better flight times.

DJI still remains the favorite drone producer amongst public safety as the manufacturer of the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual.  DJI’s drone offers a dual thermal camera with digital camera.  As security fears spills over from public safety into the consumer market, Parrot is ready to answer the call by leap frogging the existing aircraft offerings.

Parrot hopes to change the minds of drone pilots and public safety alike with the launch of the Analfi 2. It makes sense why Parrot would launch two versions of the same drone.  Parrot can offset the expensive costs of camera payloads on public safety versions by offering a mass market consumer aircraft.  Or maybe the logic is the other way around, who knows!

Consumer Version:

We’re expecting to see quite a capable little drone as expectations are high.  Many American companies and individual drone operators are searching for reliable aircraft that offers the same feature-suite as many DJI Drones.  What can drone pilots expect from this new drone, set to release June 30th, 2020?

1. Powerful Mapping Camera
2. Improved Obstacle Avoidance
3. Improved Transmission Distance
4. Improved Flight Time
5. Improved Maneuverability
6. Improved Subject Tracking
7. More Autonomous Features
8. No-Geo Fencing

While we have only seen the new drone for a few split seconds, we have some hunches that showcase what we might expect.  As we began investigating who knew about the upcoming launch, we started to connect the dots.  Notice Parrot has financially supported Sensefly, a drone company that specializes in drone mapping and the digitization of the world. Due to this strong relationship that sensefly promotes, we expect to see the Anafi 2 have a serious mapping camera.  Maybe we can expect a 20mp CMOS sensor or even a 42mp Cmos sensor.  Either way, I expect the shutter on this camera to at least be read by Pix4D as “fast read-out,” even though it may not have a true mechanical shutter.

With this style of shutter, the drone would be a honda civic of drones, offering drone pilots a great photography drone and a great mapping drone.  Match an improved obstacle avoidance with a great mapping sensor, and now you have value that few other drones really offer.  Historical preservation could become much easier as pilots would be-able to navigate 3D reconstruction acquisition.  Flying around trees that are close to buildings creates challenges for 3d modeling.  Anafi 2 might make this easier.

Public Safety Version:

Frankly, we expect the Anafi 2 drone to shine with public safety..  Drones for good is a powerful message to the world as we love to see technology help humans.  Why wouldn’t Parrot bring a serious sensor payload to the aircraft? This would make mapping easy, in thermal or regular imagery.

Search and Rescue drone pilots should love this drone  This aircraft will offer the powerful payloads of something like the DJI Matric 210 or 300, but in a compact package. Here’s what we expect to see from the launch next week.

1. Triple Payload: Digital Zoom, Digital Fixed Lens and Thermal
2. Thermal Payload will be Radiometric
3. Digital Zoom will offer Z30-like features in a package 1/20th the size
4. Increased Transmission Range
5. Secure Digital Transmission
6. Local Data Mode & Local Firmware Updating
7. Increased Flight Time
8. Dual Transmission

During our investigation of this particular leak, we realized that the Parrot Anafi UA version was actually not produced by Parrot. We expect Parrot to make an official government version of the Anafi by launching this new aircraft with features we’ve already seen.

With accident reconstruction being a major use-case of drones, we expect the government version to be built to work with applications like Pix4D Capture and even DroneSense.  This government edition may have hot-swappable payloads that offers even more mapping flexibility than the consumer version.