DJI's commercial drones can now carry more sensors into dangerous situations

Last year, Yuneec announced an SDK for its six-rotor commercial UAV, the H520. That drone has thermal capabilities as well, but that developer's kit was strictly software-based, unlike DJI's, which integrates third-party hardware. If other drone companies want to catch up to DJI, they have a lot of ground to make up. Reports put the company's total market share in North America at 50 percent, which includes the sub-$500 drone segment in which smaller, toy-like crafts do huge volume. DJI also just signed a deal with Japanese construction firm Komatsu to create a fleet of drones running a custom machine-learning software.