DJI has been out and about with its handheld camera tech lately, but it’s back on its usual track with the Agras T55. If the name isn’t enough of a clue, the new drone is designed with farming in mind. It’s a bit of a weightlifter, though, so it should handle more than just lugging farm equipment.
The drone isn’t small, folding up in a neat enough package to fit in the back of a bakkie. That’s a far cry from something that’ll lift off and land in the palm of your hand. It’s still intended to be used by a single user, who acts as both flight tech and pilot. Not at the same time, obviously.
Agricultural Agras T55
While the Agras T55 will do work away from farmland, it’s engineered specifically for the fields. A range of spraying and planting accessories are available, as is a 50-litre spraying tank. If you are dispersing liquids, DJI’s worker features adjustable droplet size and a 40- or 50-litre-per-minute spray rate. The company isn’t exactly 100% clear on this.
It’ll also dispense fertiliser or feed over a specified area. It’ll handle up to 55 kilos of this material at a time, with several feeder attachments available for the setup. Two of these, the extra-large and medium, are included from the outset. The other accessories are optional extras.
DJI’s usual features — obstacle avoidance, automated flight, and so on — are joined by terrain mapping. The included controller uses a 7in touchscreen display between a set of joysticks. The company has positioning and connectivity add-ons, too. There’s no guarantee of a cellular signal across an entire agricultural area, after all.
Then there’s battery life. DJI’s Agras T55 includes a new heat sink system that’s supposed to keep the drone in operation in summer heat. As for the batteries themselves, the smallest is a 20Ah unit that weighs 8.3kg. The larger version is a 30Ah unit weighing 11.7 kilos.
As for the price? DJI won’t tell us upfront, but farm equipment in general isn’t cheap. Some estimates peg the DJI Argas T55 at more than R162,000.
