FLIR’s recent strategic investment in DroneBase has been rewarding to me on both a professional and personal level - professional since DroneBase is now able to offer scalable thermal solutions to enterprises of any size and personal because, like many veterans who are DroneBase pilots, I relied on FLIR products during my military service.
In partnership with FLIR, we’re offering sUAS Level 1 Thermography Certification through FLIR’s Infrared Training Center (ITC). While we’re providing a discount to all DroneBase Pilots, I hope that veterans will be excited to work with FLIR again to leverage their previous training in their civilian lives. For those of you who haven’t used FLIR products before, I’m excited to introduce you to their advanced technology.
Why thermal?
Enterprises are just beginning to tap into use cases for flights with thermal sensors. It’s not that they didn’t understand the benefit of thermal sensors previously, but the flights were too expensive and dependable technology hadn’t been available at a reasonable price. FLIR has been leading the charge on the technology front by making sensors like the Zenmuse XT and XT2, which are compatible with certain DJI drones.
Businesses in energy, commercial buildings, and utilities are already leveraging thermal technology, and we hope to enable more companies to use this data at scale. Whether an energy company is checking solar panels for hotspots to detect potentially catastrophic defects or property managers are looking for leaks in HVAC units, there are many ways for businesses to incorporate this technology. But since these are more complicated flights, these missions require additional certification at the ITC.
Why become certified in thermal?
By completing the sUAS Level 1 Thermography Certification, we will give you opportunities to fly DroneBase Thermal Missions. Not to mention, you will be able to provide higher-value, higher-priced flights and analysis to your own customers. We designed the course with FLIR to equip Part 107 pilots with the background, skills, and knowledge required to properly capture and interpret thermal images. We will cover topics focused on infrared science, thermal applications, safety, and proper drone camera settings across four days.
Our goal is to build the first national-scale thermal capture capability by providing thousands of DroneBase pilots with FLIR’s in-person thermographic training, so companies can begin to consistently rely on thermal data from these flights. Until now, there hasn’t been a national scalable solution for drone flights with thermal sensors, and we want to change that by making thermal more reliable and attainable. Plus, these advanced missions are treated much differently compared to our quick 10-image missions where the payouts aren’t as high. Furthermore, we are not asking for pilots to provide data analysis.
If this sounds interesting to you, we’re excited to be able to offer this course at a discounted rate throughout the country. While no equipment is required to complete the training, we will need you to have a minimum quality of 640x512 thermal sensor. You can learn more about the training and future hardware requirements on our ITC FAQ page here. As a benefit for our partnership with FLIR, we are working on discounts for the equipment, so stay tuned.
