I was about to pull the trigger on the current
Evo II Dual, but after seeing these leaks and the hints provided by Autel enterprise support - it seems very likely something new will be announced in January. It could be the airframe with attachments (I think this is more feasible) - and perhaps RTK module attachment is made available as well. I think it's safe to assume a radiometric sensor won't be available because Boson doesn't make a radiometric sensor variant - and the 640T sensor is made ex-US. I think it's also plausible an enterprise controller - similar to
dragonfish controller - may be released as well.
@advexure - Thoughts? And, would you suggest I buy a dual now or wait a few more weeks for a possible newer version?
This is a very good question that certainly comes up in this industry all the time given the way the UAS technology innovates and manufacturers compete. The
EVO II Dual is still a young and very new product when looking at the
EVO II series and Autel product cycle as a whole. Given the current strong demand and adoption of the
EVO II Dual
it would certainly be surprising to see any type of new model or version be introduced any time soon.
Autel Robotics USA does operate with different supply chain partners from the rest of Autel Robotics (particularly in Asia) and what we see in the USA/North America market is and may be different than what Autel introduces for other markets. That's not to say that products and versions released in the Asian market won't eventually be released in the NA market.
We can say that a "Smart" or "Enterprise" remote controller compatible with the
EVO II series is most definitely in the works (even Autel themselves named the open area in the lower deck of the
EVO II GPC Hard Case to be for a "future controller") and inevitable to release sometime early in 2021.
The NA market certainly would love to see a Radiometric payload option for the
EVO II, but currently FLIR does not have Boson core that is radiometric as you mention above. The US market really loves FLIR and the inspection vertical primarily demands FLIR sensors compatible with FLIR Tools, so it would be unlikely to see a non-FLIR thermal variant for the USA/NA. That's certainly not to say that FLIR/Autel would not work on a Radiometric camera/payload option if FLIR makes a Radiometric Boson core available in 2021. This would likely just be a payload/camera option for the
EVO II series, similar to the market's request for another payload/camera option with greater optical zoom capabilities.
These images out of Asia of an
EVO II RTK version as well as an
EVO II with modular attachments sure have been quite a tease, but our team is pretty confident it will be some time until we would see these options enter the NA market but anything is certainly possible as the
EVO II Dual becomes more and more widespread across many sectors and Autel takes more and more feedback from users and channel partners.