Eternal Angler
Administrator
I suspect this is going to be pretty ground breaking for the underwater drone world! Chasing Innovation plans on releasing their new underwater drone at 2020 CES which will feature replaceable batteries and lateral movement, focusing on the angled side thrusters in this photo. Lateral movement is a huge plus for filming fish , but I think what will be groundbreaking is the replaceable batteries, far as I know this will be the first underwater consumer drone that will have replaceable batteries. I'm sure some of the commercial ROVs on the market have replaceable batteries, but far as I know, this will be the first recreational consumer drone under the $2k price tag that has this benefit. Just a hunch, I suspect even the commercial hobbyists may be purchasing this drone over the top dollar commercial ROV on the market.
No word yet on the price tag, just be sure to tune in to Chasing's Facebook Live on January 7, 2020 for more information. Who knows, maybe it'll be a little over $2k, something like $2,500... But I think Chasing knows it's important to make their ROV affordable for the average hobbyist. I think Geneinno T1 isn't getting enough recognition because of the $2,600 price tag, but I still think it's worth it for what Geneinno offers on the T1 with the robotic arm and sonar.
And I wonder if this new underwater drone may feature other innovation and add-ons like sonar technology and make an extendable interface for attachments such as a claw. I think the company knows by now that many of their hobbyist fans want some sort of grabber for the Gladius Mini, I don't think that's going to happen for the Mini, but who knows, maybe that's what the company has in store for their new drone. I tried zooming in underneath the photo a little bit to see if there's a port or some sort of input, but I don't see anything.
With the slogan Freedom to Unwind, I wonder if that will be the name of this drone, "Freedom?" And it's obvious to me that the company is concentrating more on improved mobility for filming purposes rather than other attachments like a robotic arm, but hey, I could be wrong.
Like I said in this other thread here, I think if you want a robotic arm, you may have to purchase another drone for that purpose, and then another drone if you want professional photography and videos. It would be nice to own a drone that has all those features, plus replaceable batteries, but I don't think we're their quite yet with the technology.
And remember, this is 2020 CES, maybe we have some new underwater drone companies arriving on the scene, maybe Youcan Robot or Power Vision has something in the works for robotic arm, exciting times we're living in! I've been waiting for this type of technology for a long time...