Thermal measurements made from an unmanned aerial system (UAS) ease industrial inspections but can also be invaluable for firefighting, law enforcement, and public safety/emergency missions. The VUE TZ20-R thermal zoom drone payload developed by Teledyne FLIR employs a pair of FLIR Boson thermal cameras to perform precise thermal measurements over wide areas. The drone payload can perform and record radiometric temperature measurements from a safe standoff distance to perform inspections on roofing, solar farms, and other utilities but also help emergency response drone pilots involved in search-and-rescue operations, law enforcement, fire-fighting missions, and public safety operations.
The radiometric VUE TZ20-R thermal zoom drone payload (see the figure) has been developed for “plug-and-play” use with the company’s DJI V2 Matrice 200 and 300 series drone aircraft. The thermal cameras provide 640 × 512-pixel resolution and can be programmed via isotherms to automatically search for thermal signatures of interest. The thermal payload achieves a wide 95° field of view (FOV) with 5×, 10×, and 20× digital zoom control for safe measurements from a distance, as required in fire-fighting operations.