Aerial Thermal Mapping and Thermal Inspections

Thermal Inspection of Critical Assets and Environments using Drones

Aerial thermal mapping using drones can deliver essential insights into the performance of critical assets such as commercial solar panel arrays, solar farms, industrial and commercial roof surfaces, vegetation areas, environmental areas and commercial crops.

Queensland Drones delivers specialised thermal imaging services using enterprise grade radiometric thermal sensors like the DJI H20T, which can capture both thermal images and thermal video, to provide both relative and actual temperature readings even over very large areas. We also have the capability to deliver centimetre precision data so your team can go straight to the detected issue, every time.

Typical applications for aerial thermal inspections include:

Thermal Building Inspections

thermal building inspection
Thermal radiometric building inspections can save on repairs and maintenance, rapidly identifying areas of heat accumulation and loss.

Our radiometric thermal inspection drones can examine external surfaces of any commercial or industrial building to identify both hot and cold areas which can indicate heat loss, air ingress or water ingress into the building shell.

Early detection of facade and structural weaknesses can save large sums in building repair and maintenance on office blocks, high rise residential and commercial towers, office blocks, even structures like bridges and tunnels.

Thermal Solar Panel and Solar Farm Inspections

thermal solar panel inspection
Aerial inspection using thermal cameras can easily identify performance faults at panel, sub-array and panel group level.

Thermal radiometric solar panel performance inspections are safer, faster and more effective than any traditional methods, especially as they can detect performance faults down to cell level within a panel, to panel level within a sub-array, and to array level within a panel group – a far greater level of precision than any other inspection method.

Queensland Drones can supply raw thermal radiometric imagery for processing by your own team, or we can analyse the thermal data to deliver hotspot reports with GPS data for easy location of under-performing panels or sub-arrays. If required, we can also introduce you to more detailed and consolidated thermal array reporting from our analysis partners, Helimetrics and Raptor Maps.

Commercial Roof Inspections, Tower and Spire Inspections

thermal roof inspection
Aerial roof inspection using thermal drones is faster, safer and can more easily identify problem areas.

Traditional methods of inspecting high roofs and structures like towers and spires are inherently dangerous, a fact that has been recognised in recent changes to Workplace Health & Safety regulations which now require scaffolding and additional safety protections for personnel operating above specific heights.

UAV inspection of roofs and other high structures using thermal radiometric imaging requires no scaffolding and does not put personnel at any risk. Thermal roof inspections using drones is faster, safer and more cost-effective than any traditional method. Our radiometric thermal cameras can detect hotspots and provide reporting on actual surface temperatures including the precise location, so your maintenance teams know what to look for and where it’s located before they ever step onto a roof.

Environmental and Agricultural Thermal Mapping Using Drones

visible and thermal crop imaging
Thermal radiometric cameras can detect energy emissions from plants and vegetation that indicate water availability and absorption. Any difference in temperature is captured with white standing for the hottest, violet for the coolest while yellow, blue and red represent the in between temperature.

Aerial thermal inspection using drones is useful in the detection of crop anomalies (refer to https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1224/1/012034/pdf for example) and the detection and counting of pest animals in crops and environmentally sensitive areas.

thermal pest and animal identification
Four types of objects automatically detected in thermal images taken from drones during the a QUT animal sensing study: (A) koala, (B) kangaroo, (C) car, and (D) person. hermal night photography is useful for detecting the presence of feral and pest animals including recording their nocturnal movement patterns, identifying burrows and nesting locations and mapping commonly used routes for baiting and trapping.

Our aerial thermal radiometric sensors are especially good at detecting the thermal signatures of pest animals in sensitive environmental areas, especially at night. Depending on the height we fly, our sensors can detect anything from larger animals like horses, deer and ungulates, to mid-size animals like dogs, pigs and foxes, and even small animals like rodents, rabbits, etc.

thermal crop analysis
Comparative thermal analysis can identify fine variability in the uptake of water and nutrients by plants.

Aerial thermal drone inspections can also bring a whole new level of insight to crop health inspections. Our thermal sensors can easily detect issues including irrigation blockages, over-watering, nitrogen deficiencies, even the comparative health of plots within a trial planting, or even individual plants within a plot.

Thermal Inspection of Power Transmission and Distribution Assets

Thermal inspection of power transmission and distribution line assets is rapidly replacing tradition, costly and dangerous methods like ground photography and helicopter photography.

All powerline structures and components absorb heat in normal operation, both from the network and from the environment, but aerial thermal inspection can rapidly and accurately detect abnormal heat which could indicate a developing fault or hazard in a component, which could result in failure or even fire.

Aerial thermal imaging of power transmission and distribution assets is faster, cheaper and much safer. Data can be collected in a standard, repeatable format which can be compared from period to period to identify emerging issues much sooner than subjective observation.

thermal imaging of power poles
Aerial thermal inspection of power poles and power lines can rapidly identify potential hazards and defects. The powerful zoom camera integrated into our H20T thermal sensor can zoom in to provide incredible detail of suspect hardware or components. (Photo credit: DJI)
DJI H20T sensor
Our DJI H20T camera has three integrated sensors which can be used independently or simultaneously – the radiometric thermal sensor, a wide angle camera and a 20X zoom camera, all of which can capture still images or video. It also has a built-in laser range finder to accurately maintain specific distance from a target. (Photo credit: DJI)
Screenshotter YouTube ZenmuseH20HowtoUsetheZenmuseH20InfraredCamera 0 30 new5
Thermal radiometric temperature point measurements can be made for any specific component or feature suspected of a fault or hazard (Photo credit: Heliguy).

Ask About our Aerial Thermal Mapping and Inspection Services

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