A Practical Validation of Uncooled Thermal Imagers for Small RPAS

Uncooled thermal imaging sensors in the LWIR (7.5 μm to 14 μm) have recently been developed for use with small RPAS. This study derives a new thermal imaging validation methodology via the use of a blackbody source (indoors) and real-world field conditions (outdoors). We have demonstrated this method with three popular LWIR cameras by DJI (Zenmuse XT-R, Zenmuse XT2 and, the M2EA) operated by three different popular DJI RPAS platforms (Matrice 600 Pro, M300 RTK and, the Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced). Results from the blackbody work show that each camera has a highly linearized response (R2 > 0.99) in the temperature range 5–40 °C as well as a small (<2 °C) temperature bias that is less than the stated accuracy of the cameras. Field validation was accomplished by imaging vegetation and concrete targets (outdoors and at night), that were instrumented with surface temperature sensors. Environmental parameters (air temperature, humidity, pressure and, wind and gusting) were measured for several hours prior to imaging data collection and found to either not be a factor, or were constant, during the ~30 min data collection period. In-field results from imagery at five heights between 10 m and 50 m show absolute temperature retrievals of the concrete and two vegetation sites were within the specifications of the cameras. The methodology has been developed with consideration of active RPAS operational requirements.