DJI and DroneDeploy want to help businesses and drone operators get more out of thermal mapping. The two companies have announced a new partnership to increase the effectiveness of solar panel installations and inspection through drone thermal imagery capture and analytics.
“We’re excited to partner with DroneDeploy to help businesses get the most out of their DJI drones,” said Ryan Tong, a managing director at DJI. “Roof inspection hasn’t changed significantly over the past decade. Introducing safe and accurate drone-based 3D models to replace survey wheels and measuring tapes is a step forward for the industry.”
DJI first announced plans to put thermal cameras into its drones back in December when it partnered with Flir. “Adding thermal imaging as an additional sensor options for aerial platforms will open up new and innovative uses for our users, whether it’s gaining strategic insight into how their crops are growing or more efficiently understanding the spread of fires,” said Frank Wang, CEO and founder of DJI, at the time.
This new partnership is designed to make thermal mapping more accessible. DJI and DroneDeploy are currently working on thermal image processing, which is in a beta testing phase for the Zenmuse XT camera available on the DJI Inspire.
“DJI is the largest drone hardware player in the market, and the manufacturer of choice for many of our customers,” said Darr Gerscovich, senior vice president of marketing for DroneDeploy. “DroneDeploy’s new inspection workflow and thermal image-processing capability is a really exciting development for the solar energy industry and beyond. These functionalities open up a wealth of new possibilities for businesses and government organizations looking to put drones to work.”
Benefits of this partnership include the ability to generate accurate 3D structural models; obtain precise property and structural measurements; avoid hot spots with a thermal camera; develop preflight maps; and inspect completed installations.
